University of Wisconsin-Madison rolls out new freshman training after racial incidents - Basically if will teach the students to LOVE EVERYBODY but WHITIE

For many freshmen arriving at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall, it will be the first time they interact with students who don't overwhelmingly look, love, experience and identify in the same way. Often that's a mind-broadening experience.

But after a series of disturbing incidents last year � Swastikas taped to the dorm room door of a Jewish student; heckling of a Native American elder with "war cry sounds" during a healing circle and racial threats in an anonymous note to a student of color � the university is planning to give incoming freshmen more than just an academic education.

This fall, the campus will test a diversity program with up to 1,000 freshmen that officials hope will offer an opportunity for students to learn both about themselves, and about others.

"That's what the collegiate experience is all about," UW-Madison Dean of Students Lori Berquam said. "Some of our students are joining us from small towns and they're going to live in a residence hall that's bigger."

More than half of UW-Madison students � about 53% � are from Wisconsin, which was 87.6% white in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Some small communities in the state virtually consist of only one ethnic group.

The state's flagship campus is part of a national wave of universities that view mandatory cultural competency orientation as one way to help relieve racial tensions and help graduates ultimately be more adept at navigating diverse work environments.

Designers of the diversity program, dubbed Our Wisconsin, said they consulted with University of Oklahoma and other colleges implementing diversity programs, including Oregon State University, the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan.

The university already has hired a program director, whose name has not yet been publicized, along with undergraduate student assistant Katrina Morrison and 45 faculty and students to be program facilitators. A diversity consulting firm was hired to write the program's curriculum.

The pilot program's estimated cost for up to 1,000 freshmen this fall is $150,000 to $200,000, which Chancellor Rebecca Blank set aside from a special fund.

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