DELAY IS THE DEADLIEST FORM OF DENIAL.

Last week, Mark J. Perry issued a call for lawsuits. "Higher education has a major civil rights problem, and it’s so widespread that it’s nothing short of systemic and structural."  Perhaps the deanlets and deanlings who run the division of diversity and special education will dither and delay and hope the problem goes away.  Prepare to fight it out on that line if it takes seventeen summers.

In February 2005 the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents ignored my complaints that several financial aid programs violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These programs restricted eligibility to students based on their race, color, and national origin even though Title VI explicitly prohibits discrimination based on “race, color, and national origin” in programs or activities receiving federal funds.

The Board of Regents’ brushoff led me in March 2005 to forward my complaints to the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which is charged with enforcing Title VI. I expected a quick ruling because the evidence of UW’s discrimination was so clear cut. But, now, seventeen years later, OCR, specifically its Chicago Office, still has not ruled on my complaints. It nonetheless claims to be moving “as expeditiously as possible” in ruling on my complaints, which it has said involve “complex legal issues.”

The nature of these “complex legal issues” has never been explained to me. The language of Title VI could not be stated more clearly, nor could the violations by the University of Wisconsin be more obvious.

A lengthy excursion into process worship follows.

The time has come to enforce the law. I hope that Catherine Lhamon, the new Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, will move quickly to see that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is enforced. However, it is difficult to be optimistic since Lhamon took no action on my complaints when she served in this position previously.

How long must a citizen wait before his well-documented complaints are ruled on by the very organization established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to enforce the law?

The author of the essay is Wisconsin economist Lee Hansen, once upon a time a New Frontier man, who has called attention to numerous education policy follies coming out of Bascom Hall over the years.