Dan Hausman

"Preferential Admissions at UW: Equal Opportunity or Unfair Discrimination?"

Dan Hausman, February 22, 2012

The inaugural lecture was given by Herbert A. Simon and Hilldale Professor Dan Hausman. The event was open to the public, as well as the UW-Madison community. Dan's talk was entitled "Preferential Admissions at UW: Equal Opportunity or Unfair Discrimination?" and was delivered on Feb 22, 2012, at 7p.m., in 1100 Grainger Hall on campus. Here is a brief summary of the talk:

According to a news release from Center for Equal Opportunity this past October, African Americans and Hispanics are more than 1000 times more likely to be accepted at UW-Madison than White or Asian students -- "the most severe undergraduate admissions discrimination that CEO has ever found." How could such apparently extreme discrimination possibly be permissible? Indeed how can ANY discrimination be tolerated by the UW community? Dan Hausman, a philosophy professor here at UW, will argue that preferential admission of disadvantaged minorities is not unjust, and that it is a policy we should all support -- though not for the reasons most people think.

To watch Dr. Hausman's talk, click here.