"My comments were misreported in the student email correspondences that became public and were published in the local press," said Kaplan. "As a result, the distorted view of my February 15 class became national news."
"My class on February 15 was intended to be sympathetic to the Hmong people. I still am," he added.
During the meeting Kaplan stressed two points. One was that during his February 15 class he tried to discuss how a formalist legal system could negatively affect immigrant groups.
"To highlight the problem of unjust formalism in my class of February 15, I brought up the difficulties that liberal states have with absorbing and integrating newly immigrant cultures, not always successfully," said Kaplan.
"Sometimes you do harm to people's sensitivity by speaking the truth. I offer my remarks here in the Rotarian spirit of doing no harm, or as little harm as possible, but recognizing that truth, like learning, may sometimes be painful."
"The law inevitably must resolve questions that many find offensive," Kaplan said. "If law professors avoid these questions, they no longer teach law."
Not all students have sided against the law professor, however. One of Kaplan's former students stated, "Of all the people who taught me at UW-Madison, you, Professor Kaplan, contributed the most to what I feel I am able to do when I go into the courtroom and when I face difficulties."
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, founded in 1848, is located in Madison, Wisconsin, and currently enrolls 41,466 students.
