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The University of Wisconsin at Madison will likely be required to admit all in-state students who graduate in the top 5 percent of their high school class under a bill approved by the state Legislature Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
The measure requires all other campuses in the Universities of Wisconsin system to admit the top 10 percent of state high school graduates.
The bill is part of a deal reached between Republican state legislators and the university system in December after months of contentious negotiations. In addition to the admissions requirements, the deal also mandates cuts and wide-ranging changes to the system’s DEI initiatives—all in exchange for approximately $800 million in funding to cover staff raises and construction projects.
Governor Tony Evers has not indicated whether he will sign the legislation.
If the measure becomes law, Wisconsin will join a growing number of states that guarantee college admissions to their top-performing students. The University of Tennessee implemented a similar policy in September, and Texas was the first state to implement such a plan in 1997.
Wisconsin university system officials said in a statement to the AP that the bill “will help encourage the top students in Wisconsin to remain in-state for their postsecondary education, and will encourage more of these students to remain here after graduation.”
