MADISON, Wis. -- University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley told a legislative committee reviewing affirmative action Thursday that high school grades and test scores aren't good predictors of a student's performance in college.

He said that forces admission officials to look at other factors.

Wiley's appearance before the Special Committee on Affirmative Action comes as UW System regents consider a new admissions policy that would give greater weight to nonacademic factors such as race. UW-Madison admissions officials already perform this so-called holistic review.

Republican state Sen. Glenn Grothman, of West Bend, challenged Wiley, saying he assumes that people who are minorities automatically have a different point of view.

Grothman asked Wiley why admissions officials don't remove the race indicator from applications.

Wiley responded that race isn't irrelevant in the real world.

Lucia Nunez, director of Madison's Department of Civil Rights, told the same committee about the city's hiring practices.

Nunez said that human resources officials need ways to evaluate the changing landscape of the city's population.

"Affirmative action as we see it is a broad definition that takes a look at what mechanisms exist that we can utilize in different aspects of the city to address what the community looks like, what their needs are," she said.

The Special Committee on Affirmative Action is examining all of the state's affirmative action laws and will hold hearings in Milwaukee before creating any changes to legislation.