I am writing regarding Emeritus Professor W. Lee Hansen's recent full-page paid advertisement in your paper. Virtually everything in Professor Hansen's advertisement was either seriously misleading or just plain wrong. The errors are far too numerous to correct here, and, rather than spending $1,300 to buy two full pages of advertising space, I will post a full analysis and rebuttal of his claims on my Web page later this week. Here, I will just say that 24 of the 28 numbers in Hansen's two tables are wrong. Even if the numbers were right, they would not show what he claims they show.
I am particularly offended by Professor Hansen's use of the term ""Race/Ethnic-Based Preferences"" (which he capitalizes, underlines and highlights in his ad). Opponents of affirmative action nationwide use this same phrase repeatedly as a rhetorical substitute for factual claims. It is a carefully selected term designed to mislead. We have no right, no reason, no motivation and no intention of admitting anyone of any race or gender who is not likely to succeed here. The numbers Hansen cites as evidence of ""race preferences"" show no such thing. I will have more to say about what the corrected numbers do and do not show later this week.
In the meantime, Professor Hansen urges us to give minority students accurate advice on their prospects for success at UW-Madison. Allow me to do just that. To all of our minority students, I say:
You can succeed here. You have been admitted because you have what it takes. Not a single one of you was admitted solely because of your minority status, as critics claim. No matter what your entering class rank or test scores were, you qualified competitively. Many students'both minority and majority'have been admitted and have succeeded here with low test scores or class ranks, and many others'both minority and majority'have not been admitted despite having higher ranks and scores. The so-called probabilities calculated by Professor Hansen are NOT what he claims them to be, and they do NOT reflect your past or predict your future.
Like everyone else, you will have to work hard to graduate, but that is why you are here. If you find yourself struggling in any way, just ask for help and we'll do our best to provide it, as we do for all students.
Know that about a third of all students spend at least some time on academic probation during their time here, and that many of those students entered with exceedingly high class ranks and test scores. Know that about two-thirds of all students who leave without a degree were in good academic standing when they left, meaning that they left for nonacademic reasons. Know that our graduation rates are substantially above the national average for all students, and about twice the national average for minority students.
We are committed to affirmative action, and we implement it in ways that are both legal and fair to everyone. We have no policies or practices that can, by any stretch of the imagination, reasonably be characterized as ""race preferences."" Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is wrong.
Professor Hansen and others have been relentless in their attempts to confuse a legitimate debate over public policy by using outrageously misleading labels and arguments, and I must call them on it. One of the most important things that students can learn here is how to spot an invalid argument. In that spirit, I hope all our students will use this as a learning exercise.