The local chapter of Masada, the youth branch of the Zionist Organization of America, has charged the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, with maintaining admissions standards that are “hazy,” “racist” and “anti-Semitic.” In a protest to the university–copies of which were sent to Sens. Henry M. Jackson (D.Wash.), William Proxmire and Gaylord Nelson (both D. Wis.), Abraham Ribicoff (D.Conn.) and Jacob K. Javits (R.N.Y.)–the chapter declared:
“It does not really matter any more if the limitations on out-of-state students was a result of outright anti-Semitism or de facto anti-Semitism. What is important is that action be takes immediately regarding the severe decrease of Jews at the University of Wisconsin and the seemingly blatant anti-Jewish nature of the admission cut.”
The protest, issued by Dan Frenkel, spokesman for Masada and a business administration freshman, charged that “two-thirds of the Madison Jewish student population is no longer at the university.” He said the “severe restrictions” on out-of-state students over the past four years and that the quotas and tuition increases had “effectively reduced the percentage of out-of-state students from 25 (percent) to 16 percent,” and that the Jewish student population had decreased from 3,137 in 1967 to 1,150 in 1970.
NOT ENTITLED TO FEDERAL GRANTS
“Something seems drastically wrong with out-of-state admissions policies if in a time period of three years, the Jewish student body drops two-thirds,” Frenkel wrote. He said Masada would “use all legal means at our disposal” to obtain reduced tuition for out-of-state students, cancellation of the university’s 18 percent out-of-state quota, and “a fresh look into the hazy motivations and racist anti-Semitic results of UW’s admissions policies,” Frenkel advised the five Senators that “a university which discriminates against a minority group is not entitled to any federal grants.”
Robert Taylor, UW associate vice-president, was quoted by the Milwaukee Journal, the local daily newspaper, as replying: “The university denies and always has denied that anti-Semitism played any part in enrollment quotas or out-of-state fees. The fact is that the enrollment of nonresident students never reached the quota cutoff.” The Madison campus, founded in 1848, is a state-run coeducational school with around 24,500 students, 5 percent of them non-white.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
