cc  >> Jeanan Yasiri: As we begin  today, I'd like to extend  thanks to our UW partners  in supporting this course.  The UW Office of Corporate  Relations, the UW College of  Engineering for their technical  support and financial support is  provided through the Ewing  Marion Kauffman Foundation which  is committed to advancing  academic education in  entrepreneurialism.  Additionally, we'd like to thank  our media partners, Wisconsin  Public Television, and their  University Place crew for taping  today's lecture.  I'm very pleased to introduce  our special guest today,  Dr. Fred Prehn.  Fred makes his living as the  owner of Prehn Dental Practice  in Wausau, Wisconsin, where he's  lived most of his life.  Fred is part of a long-standing  family committed to dentistry.  His grandfather started the  Wausau-based clinic in 1921.  Fred's father joined the  practice and eventually Fred and  his brothers followed in the  family tradition of dentistry as  well.  But while running a vibrant  business requires innovative  thinking and enterprising  skills, it was Fred's foray into  public service that provided him  with, and probably challenged  him the most.  And that is why I've asked him  to come and speak with our class  today. 

 In the 1990s Fred served on the  Wausau, Wisconsin, school board.  It happened to fall at a time  when Wausau, Wisconsin, was  undergoing transformative change  as a community, and the eyes of  the nation were on this  mid-sized town in middle  Wisconsin.  So as we start this section of  the course as we're discussing  community and social issues and  the solutions that are required  to integrate new people and new  ideas, I wanted you to hear  firsthand from somebody who  worked very, very hard to manage  change on behalf of his  community while, quite  literally, the whole state and  nation were watching.  Please join me in welcoming  Fred Prehn.  (applause)  >> Fred Prehn: Hello,  UW Madison.  How are you?  Good afternoon.  First of all, how many have  heard of Wausau, Wisconsin,  before?  That's a plus.  Small town in the central part  of Wisconsin, approximately  39,000 people.  What I'm going to try to do for  you today is to kind of set a  stage.  A little bit about myself. 

 Like Jeanan said, I am from  Wausau, took off to go to school  in Madison and then at the  Marquette Dental School to get  my education.  I have a family of six, my wife  and four kids.  That was taken at the Kohl  Center last May when my oldest  daughter graduated from campus.  So it was a matter of,  what do I want to do  when I graduate?  What's important to me when I  get out of school and I get back  to the community?  First, let's set the stage.  Wausau, Wisconsin, was  integrated by Germans and  Scandinavians in the early  1900s.  Most of you may or may not know  but Wausau was mainly a  lumberjack town.  Lumber built the town.  Back in 1975 when I graduated  from high school, this is the  stat which today amazes me, we  had one black in our high school  of 1500 people.  We had one Chinese.  He owned the restaurant in town. 

 And believe it or not when I  came down to school in Madison,  I wasn't protected, I traveled  with my parents.  My parents were dentists so it  wasn't like I was a protected  person.  But the first time I sat down  face-to-face with a minority was  in Humanities in 1976 and  actually became a friend with  one.  That's how white Wausau was in  the mid-'70s.  This is downtown Wausau, about  39,000 people.  Surrounding towns, about 65,000  people.  That's our biggest building in  town.  It was just built three years  ago.  It's a thriving town.  Most people know it because  they've heard of Rib Mountain,  now it's called Granite Peak,  recreational area of the state. 

 From there up they call it the  north woods.  Some of you may or may not have  been there.  If not, it's a great place to  live.  But born and raised in Wausau,  especially in my family,  I'm going to quote  John F. Kennedy.  He basically said, "For whom  much is given,  much is expected."  So when I grew up it wasn't a  matter of if I'd ever give back  to my community, it was when.  So I've got family members that  were on the historical society.  One served in the Senate back in  the '20s, mayor of Wausau.  I personally serve on a lot of  the boards, my wife does.  So we're pretty active in the  community.  But it's a story from early  mid-'80s that I want to bring to  your attention today. 

 I ran for the Wausau school  board, the Board of Education.  Nonpaying public office,  elected.  My platform was fiscal  conservative.  I had no children.  I wanted to make a difference.  I wanted to have a family, God  willing, and so what I said was  if I wanted to make a difference  in education in Wausau, I need  to start now.  So I ran.  I was just out of college.  Just got married.  Just getting my feet on the  ground. 

 So I ran for the Wausau Board of  Education and I won, mid-'80s.  How exciting.  Got on the board.  We had a lot of issues coming  and going, but there was one  issue that was happening in our  town which became the emphasis  for this whole discussion today.  It was the migration of the  Southeast Asians.  Who are these people?  What are these people?  Where are they from?  Let me tell you, back in 1982  there was 154 Southeast Asians  in Wausau.  By the mid-'90s it was  skyrocketing.  Basically the Southeast Asians,  or what we call Hmong, are from  Cambodia and Laos, in the  mountains.  And during the Vietnam War, our  government, our CIA and our  government operatives used these  people to infiltrate Vietnam and  help us with the war.  Many of you weren't even alive  at the time. 

 Most of you, and frankly it was  something that we didn't even  know about.  But we took off in '75 and left  the war, these people were left  behind.  The Vietnamese quickly scooped  these people up and put them in  camps.  So in 1975 the camps started.  Some were assassinated, some   were killed, but all of them,  all of them were put in camps.  The Vietnamese wanted these  people out of the country  because they helped America.  They worked in rice fields.  Picture this, picture Wisconsin,  four seasons, western civilian.  Picture the Hmong in the  mountains of Laos.  They're clansmen. 

 They're tribe-type people.  No western civilization.  They basically grew their food.  They had no money.  They didn't need it.  Their whole civilization and  their whole society was based  on something completely  different than Wisconsin.  It was a temperate climate.  And in 1975 they found  themselves sitting in camps.  What are we going to do?  What's America going to do?  The government did very little.  Government just had blinders. 

 Well, that's too bad.  But people in America, i. e.  churches, Good Samaritans,  people that cared about these  good people, these refugees,  decide that we need to help, we  need to get them out of Vietnam  because the Vietnamese said,  you can have them.  So we decided to start what we  call an immigration or refugee  migration.  There's a difference.  Immigration are people that came  across to America,  made this their home.  These people really didn't have  any choice.  They were told they were going  to come here and they were  sponsored.  They had no other place in the  world to go, and so many of them  came to the United States.  So the churches of Wausau got  together in the late 1970s and  the early 1980s and started  sponsoring a family or two. 

 By 1982 there was 154  Southeast Asians in Wausau.  It started to grow.  These people were completely  different.  There was all kinds of  accusations and stereotypes  that happened in Wausau.  People didn't understand  this culture.  Quickly the newness of it  wore off very, very fast.  This is the graph we worked with  in 1992 when I was on the school  board for 10 years.  On the far right is 1992.  You can see the graph just  starts escalating with Southeast  Asians in the schools.  So what was the perception with  the people in Wausau?  They went from,  "this is kind of interesting,  these people  are kind of interesting"  to, "there's trouble."  The stereotypes started. 

 They thought there's going to be  gangs.  There was rumors of polygamy.  Rumors of women being married at  age 12, 13, 14.  Set-up weddings.  There's even rumors of the  Southeast Asians eating dogs,  common pets in town.  And what started to at one time  being a this is interesting,  quickly became one of  "I don't think  we want these people around."  Very, very fast.  Who's seen the movie Gran  Torino?  Show of hands.  I sat there and watched that  movie last summer, and I just  kind of smiled to myself because  in the audience people were  laughing at some of the lines  that Clint was saying.  Well, let me tell you folks.  That's what people thought. 

 People actually thought what  Clint Eastwood said in the first  part of the movie.  Lack of understanding,  sterotype, he says it, I agree  with it and it just kind of  mushroomed.  So we had a real problem in  Wausau.  So as a school board member,  probably about 1989-1990, we  started talking about at the  school board how are we going to  handle this.  Because here's what was  happening in Wausau.  The Southeast Asians were coming  in massive numbers.  At that time one in 10 citizens  in Wausau were Hmong.  So we went from zero when I was  in high school to one in 10 by  1990.  But they all lived in the same  part of town.  And they said they're all going  to go to the same elementary  school. 

 So I would go, and at this time  I had four kids and I think my  oldest was in first grade in  1990 or 1992, and I go to the  parent-teacher conferences, I  was president of the school  board, and they said,  do something.  75% of our class is non-English  speaking Southeast Asians.  We don't have the resources to  teach these kids anything.  We're teaching them basic  skills, where to go to the  bathroom.  And the white kids are sitting  there going, this isn't good,  I'm not getting any instruction  at all because my teacher is  busy teaching this kid how to  walk down the hallway and go to  the drinking fountain.  So we knew we had a problem.  One of the main problems was  that it's a city-wide issue, not  just a school issue.  We had to help educate the city  and say, wait a minute, we're  all in this together.  What are we going to do?  Housing was the big thing.  You got to get the Southeast  Asians, if we can spread them  out in the city so they go into  the elementary schools and get a  little bit diluted. 

 Very difficult task, even to  this day it's not corrected.  The other thing we talked about  is racial imbalance and the  racial issues and we need to  start educating the whites that  these people are not leeches of  society, they're human beings  that need our help.  I always said that Wausau never  had, I think it's on the 60  Minutes piece you're going to  see, I always said Wausau never  really had any racists in town  because, frankly, we had no  reason to be racist.  But when the Southeast Asians  came in the numbers and you  start having some of the  problems that they brought and  concerns they brought, the  racists came out.  So we sat there and said, okay,  we had many, many topics and  discussions, lots of stuff.  And you can see in some of the  graphs, the change the city has  faced.  This graph just skyrockets the  Southeast Asians in a 10-year  span.  I don't know what town you're  all from, but picture the town  you're from being no minorities  to that in record time.  And very few were educated.  Very few spoke English. 

 So the social problems were  really quite astronomical.  The main problem the school  board had is we had massive  language barriers.  We had to hire ESL teachers.  Anybody know what ESL teachers  are?  English as a second language.  They don't teach, they don't  know how to speak Hmong but they  teach the kids English as a  second language.  We had none in the '80s.  Today I think we have 17 hired.  Increased staffing.  Massive need for buildings.  Our enrollments went from the  normal enrollment you have in  any district to huge influx of  kids coming in. 

 So we had to build elementary  schools.  That means what?  That means taxes go up.  Ma and Pa sit back and they're  saying taxes are bad enough, now  you're going to double my  property tax bills.  That's how public education is  funded is property taxes.  So the tax bills were going off  the charts.  There was very little housing  for the people to live in.  They couldn't afford nice homes.  And one of the biggest concerns  was the Southeast Asians in  town.  I always thought as a board  member, like Jeanan said, I was  young, I was 30 years old, to me  that's young, maybe not to you  but to me that's young, and  these are things I just hadn't  dealt with before.  But I knew one thing, my parents  gave me an education, just like  you're here getting an  education. 

 That gift will make a  difference.  I always said if we can get  these Southeast Asians into  society, educated, make them  productive members of our  society, the problems will go  away.  Could you do that in Chicago?  No way.  Milwaukee?  Probably not.  Madison?  Maybe.  But Wausau?  I said it was doable.  So here was our plan.  We developed what they called  sister schools.  We took the 13 elementary  schools that were kindergarten  to 6th grade, took the 6th  graders out and put them in the  middle school, and we made one  school all K-2 and the other  school all 3-5.  We thought it was a great plan. 

 Spread them out, less Hmong per  classroom.  Kind of help dilute the problem,  put more resources to it.  But we left the neighborhood  school concept.  And when we left the  neighborhood school concept,  busing.  Nobody was alive in the '60s.  Anybody alive in the '60s in  this room?  Besides me?  Busing was one of the most  volatile topics that we  experienced in the civil rights  movement.  And the term busing, taking your  child from your neighborhood  school and moving them, in  Wausau about six blocks away, to  another school created some of  the worst hatred I've ever seen  in Wausau.  Our job was to take the kids,  both white and Southeast Asians,  move them to different K-2  centers and get them educated.  They were all congregated, we  needed to spread them out a  little bit.  So we had busing plans. 

 This headline tells it:  Busing Stirs Up Intense Battle.  You aren't kidding it did.  We had harassment.  My child was in first grade.  She used to have her name on her  backpack.  Before school started that fall  after we implemented the busing  plan, received a phone call and  a person said,  "You SOB, your daughter,  your one-year-old daughter  Augusta is going  to get a bullet in her head  when she steps off the bus."  I hung up the phone and I went  holy mackerel, people  are really upset about this.  I knew they were but to threaten  the life of somebody.  So we had to cover up her name,  and the first couple days  we were very nervous.  I got harassed, I lost a fair  amount of patients in my dental  practice.  People were so upset at this  whole situation in Wausau and  the fact that we wanted to take  their kids and move them to  different centers that they went  ballistic. 

 So we live in a democracy,  do we not?  What did Wausau do?  Recall us.  They collected the petition to  sign the petition to have every  one of us removed from office  that voted for the plan.  There's nine members in the  Wausau school board, six voted  for it.  One abstained and two voted no.  So Wausau went through what they  call a recall.  We pleaded our case in the  paper.  I explained it at a number of  hearings, wrote letters to the  editor.  It started making national news.  National papers picked up on it  because this wasn't just a  recall of a local election  because somebody is mad at  something, this was a major,  major social issue.  And this was Wausau's way of  saying we're going to deal with  it the way we want to deal with  it. 

 They had the vote and we lost.  One day we're a board member and  we have a plan in place to deal  with the situation, the next day  we're out of office.  So I'm a private citizen again.  The new school member got sworn  in.  The first vote they had was to  put things back the way they  were.  Let me teach you something today  that you may or may not have  ever heard this term before.  It's called  de facto segregation.  De facto segregation is when a  government body or somebody  causes things to be segregated.  It's illegal.  ACLU got on board, they filed a  lawsuit and they said you can't  just put it back the way it was. 

 The laws prevent that.  You can't take something that  was integrated and now put the  whites back in their own little  school and put the Hmongs back  in their little school.  Well, they tried but they  realized they couldn't do it.  So what did they end up doing?  They ended up taking all the  Southeast Asians and busing just  the Asians to different schools.  They let the white kids stay  next to the neighborhoods, but  if you were an Asian next to an  elementary school, they would  bus you, an Asian, across town  to a different school.  And that's the way they kept  things diluted across town.  About six months or a year  later, the volatility kind of  settled down a little bit but  now national news came into  play.  Got a call from 60 Minutes, our  district did, and they said we  want to come to town and we want  to do a piece about what's  happened in Wausau.  Morley Safer was in my living  room and interviewed me.  You'll see the tape in a second. 

 I had hair back then.  (laughter)  But Morley Safer  interviewed me and you could  tell they want centralize this,  like all journalists do.  They wanted to fire up about the  bullet in the head and this and  this and this, and the bottom  line was, I tried to diffuse it  as much as I can in my  interview, it's an excellent  piece about what happened.  I'm going to quickly read you  the press release before  they released.  This is October 16, 1994.  "On October 16, 1994, the CBS  News magazine 60 Minutes  described refugee tensions in  Wausau, Wisconsin.  This small city was populated  almost exclusively by the  descendants of Germans and  Scandinavian immigrants, when,  during the '80s, several  churches sponsored Hmong  refugees.  Today Wausau's 4,000 refugees  are 11% of the population."  This is 1994.  "And policies adopted to  integrate them have divided the  city.  About three-fourths of the  Hmongs are receiving welfare  payments causing some resentment  as property taxes skyrocket as  additional schools are being  built for children of nonworking  parents. 

 Hmongs are one-fourth of the  elementary school class, and in  some cases 75% of the class is  Southeast Asian.  To promote integration the  Wausau school board began busing  children to achieve a rough  balance between Hmong and other  children in each school.  In response, the school board  that endorsed busing was  recalled."  That would be yours truly.  "And today mostly Hmong children  are being bused to achieve  ethnic balance.  They stress the current Hmong  residents were welcomed, the  town people have stressed that,  but that the community needs  breathing room to integrate the  Hmong in their midst.  The show ended with a  no-good-deed-goes-unpunished  theme.  The beneficiaries of Wausau  churches set in motion an  immigration and migration  process that has divided the  city."  So let's watch the 60 Minutes  piece.  And you can do that.  >> Yasiri: I can do that.  >> Prehn: Keep in mind  this is 1994. 

 >> (inaudible)  Governors and  elected officials have taken up  the cause demanding action.  (inaudible)  The subject is  immigration.  The US Census Bureau predicts  that if federal law remains  unchanged over the next 50 odd  years, immigrants and their  children will add 82 million  people to the United States,  nearly a third of today's total  population.  This -- towards immigrants is  nothing new, it's part of the  reality of urban America.  That reality has now struck the  almost middle America, a town so  perfect, a lot of people think  it only exists in television  commercials.  >> Wausau, W-A-U-S-A-U.  >> So if your business needs  insurance, come to Wausau,  Wausau USA.  >> Wausau, Wisconsin, best known  from the commercial for the  insurance company that's based  there.  Wausau is Norman Rockwell  Midwest, and, as the 1980s  census shows,  the most homogenous,  the whitest city in the nation.  Its 32,000 people felt safe. 

 Crime was rare.  Jobs for everyone.  All friendliness, godliness and  generous.  So in the mid-'70s when Wausau's  heart was touched by the plight  of Southeast Asian refugees and  a local church invited a few  families to come, everyone felt  good.  Dr. Fred Prehn remembers.  >> When they first started  coming to town I thought this is  really kind of neat.  We're actually going to have  somebody in town besides the  white, German or Pole.  I had no idea of the situation  ahead of us.  >> What happened is the refugee  population ballooned into 4,000  in just over a decade.  The first immigrants sponsored  --. 

 And they, in turn, sponsored  others.  (inaudible)  Culturally they could not be  more different from the  -- of Wausau.  75% of the immigrants are on  public assistance.  Very few pay local taxes.  And Wausau is feeling somewhat  less generous.  >> We've given and given and  given and we think it's time for  them to give something back.  >> The numbers are so high now,  and I think that's part of our  insecurities.  What do we do, the jobs haven't  increased and people keep  coming.  >> (inaudible)  -- who runs an  Asian grocery store says the  difference in culture is  practically interplanetary.  >> If you don't get the kind of  life that we did, it's like  going to the moon. 

 There is no technology over  there, there's nothing.  There's no phone, no TV, no  communication, there's nothing.  All they do is just work on the  land and survive.  >> The only prior contact these  people had with western  technology was a CIA weapons  handling course.  During the Vietnam War, they  were recruited by the United  States as a secret army.  They suffered huge casualties.  And when the Communists took  over, they fled to refugee camps  entirely.  It was the American government's  sense of obligation that eased  their way to America.  Now they are workless  on welfare in Wausau.  They may lack technical skills. 

 They may cling to primitive  custom but they've gained a  primitive understanding of how  public assistance works, and  they know that Uncle Sam never  misses a pay day.  And neither do they.  Welfare is a sensitive subject  to -- a Hmong community leader.  She says it all has to do with  history.  >> When my family came here in  1975 we were the very first  group of Hmong families to come  to the United States.  We were sponsored by American  families and they taught us how  to work.  They gave us education, they  gave us an American dream to  follow through.  >> Now all Hmong people are  sponsored by other Hmong people.  >> Yeah.  >> Does that make it more  difficult for them?  >> If their relative who  sponsored them are on welfare  too, it makes it really  extremely difficult for them. 

 They can't teach them to go to  school.  They can't teach them that you  have to have a job in order to  survive.  >> There are people here that  say they fear that welfare will  become a way of life, does that  concern you?  >> Yes, it does.  And that's why right now we're  fighting the educational system  so that won't happen.  >> WXEO's Wake Up Wausau show,  Jeff -- your host.  We have a problem here that  reared its ugly head on Monday  night and that is an almost  militant Asian community.  >> In the school board meeting,  that community for the first  time demanded to be heard.  >> Give me a break.  You think we're not going to be  here in the next century.  And that's why you didn't  consider us. 

 >> What angered this almost  invisible, docile community was,  of course, education.  The American institution that  historically drives communities  apart.  In Wausau, the Hmong children  make up more than a quarter of  the elementary school  population.  >> Many times we have asked you  to get in touch with us, and  every one of those times you  failed.  >> White Wausau thought  education was their business,  after all, they were paying for  it.  As the number of Hmong students  kept increasing, property taxes  kept increasing, as much as 10%  a year.  In four years about $25 million  for new and expanded schools.  Plus a few million more a year  to teach English to Hmong  children.  >> Night.  >> Night. 

 >> (inaudible)  The families tend to live  in the same neighborhood.  So by 1992 they had dealt Wausau  de facto segregated schools.  Dr. Fred Prehn was president of  the school board.  >> We knew they were  concentrated in four out of 13  elementary schools and kept  getting worse and worse by the  minute.  In some cases, 70%-80% of the  kids in a particular classroom  were non-English speaking  Southeast Asians.  >> The school board decided the  only way to integrate was to do  what seemed unthinkable in this  once united community of only  32,000, bus the children.  >> I want the Hmong kids  to play with my kid  and talk with my kid so when  they're both working in Wausau,  they both talk to each other and  they both contribute to town.  If you don't start in first,  second, third, fourth, fifth  grade, it's not going to work.  You have to start the simulation  early, you have to teach them  English and you have to the  whites talking to these kids.  >> But the majority of the  community was against busing and  they organized a group  representing every aspect of  life, housewives, businessmen,  factory workers,  the professional class. 

 And what they demanded was  keeping what they call  neighborhood schools.  >> We feel as though our family  values are being intruded upon  by having our children taken out  of our neighborhoods and having  them put in a neighborhood that  we don't want them in.  >> A lot of people feel that the  word "neighborhood schools,"  "family values," are euphemisms  for something else.  Neighborhood schools  equals white schools.  >> I don't think so at all.  I don't think race was ever an  issue in this.  I think what we as a group  wanted was our neighborhood  school back and cost-effective  quality education for all  children.  >> And to do it they organized a  recall of the election for the  school board.  It was successful.  Five members who voted for  busing were thrown out,  including Dr. Fred Prehn. 

 >> Some people voted because  they were racist.  But the majority, I don't think,  did.  The majority were scared of what  we were trying to do.  >> Dr. Prehn said patients left  his practice because of his  stand on busing.  Friends stopped talking to each  other.  >> Has there been a white flight  out of certain parts of town?  >> No question.  Within 15 blocks I can name you  15 families that have left this  part of town to go private.  >> Private schools.  >> Private schools, you bet.  >> -- put his daughter in  private school because he felt  she would be held back if she  was with slower Hmong children. 

 >> We're seeing gangs  in the schools.  For goodness sakes, Wausau,  little Wausau, Wisconsin, last  year had its first drive-by  shooting between two Asian  gangs.  >> This is News at 10.  >> The shooting at this car may  be the first drive-by shooting  in Wausau's history.  Police believe the shooting was  a result of tensions between  Hmong and Laotian teenagers.  >> The CBS affiliate in Wausau  also happened to capture this  racial incident on tape.  (inaudible)  No one was hurt in  either incident.  But for the people who lived in  Wausau all their lives, it was a  rude introduction to our brave  new world.  >> Come lord Jesus  be our guest...  >> Especially for Darryl --  and his family. 

 >> The drive-by shooting was  three blocks from our house.  On most evenings when we go for  a walk our kids ride their bikes  down the sidewalk.  We walk and there's a drive-by  shooting in our neighborhood?  That worries us.  That's a big concern for us.  >> The school board voted to go  back to neighborhood schools.  The Hmong believed that means  segregation and second class  education.  With their children learning  much faster and integrate better  when they're side by side with  white children.  >> For which it stands,  one nation, under God...  >> But the new board...  (inaudible)  It leaves no one  entirely happy. 

 A plan that for many people here  was proof that no good deed goes  unpunished.  >> Wausau is being penalized for  being good.  The communities that surround  Wausau have discriminated  against the Asian population and  not made them feel welcome, and  so they keep coming to Wausau.  So in a sense,  for treating people well --  and that isn't very fair.  (inaudible)  >> Because of federal law  and post-Vietnam guilt syndrome,  the immigrants keep coming.  Now sponsored  by Hmong relatives.  This family spent five years in  refugee camps before their  reunion last May.  There are thousands more in the  camps in Thailand.  >> We're not here to work so  that we can go back.  We know we can't go back. 

 We're here to stay.  >> These people couldn't return  to their homeland and the  promise was that we would  provide a refuge for them.  We are keeping our federal  government's promise and the  burden is on the local  government not on the federal  government and I think that's  wrong.  >> What you're saying is if  these people  would just get up and go away  this town would be a great town.  >> (inaudible)  That's not what we're saying  at all.  We're saying that the community  may have reached a point where  it can't handle any more.  >> To me that is just racist.  There's never too many.  The United States is for  everybody.  And never did they say that a  town can only hold so many  people or so many of this kind. 

 >> While Wausau tries to balance  its books, its self-interest,  its generosity and a touch of  racism, it is as one on the  issue of immigration, that the  federal government must give  them a break.  >> Give us some time to breathe.  Give us a chance to get over  this conflict.  Give us a chance to solve the  present situation.  Immigration is the backbone of  America, to stop it I don't  think would be right.  Just slow it down.  >> That's the Wausau story.  >> Prehn: That's  the Wausau story.  You know, sitting there watching  that, you may not believe it but  that's the first time I've  watched it since 1994.  I made that tape and I threw it  in my closet and when Jeanan  asked if I would speak on it  because she'd heard about it, I  sent her down the VHS tape and  she made a DVD, but that's the  first time I watched that piece  in close to 17 years. 

 The Wausau story.  What followed the 60 Minutes  piece was lots of national news.  Atlantic Monthly, if you're  interested in this topic, this  is an excellent article from  April 1994 by Roy Beck.  Instead of having photo  journalism this was an in depth  discussion of what happened in  the migration.  Time magazine did a piece,  "Strangers in  a Strange Land,"  and even to this day I get phone  calls because if you Google  Southeast Asia and Wausau  my name pops up.  I get phone calls from students  at major universities throughout  the country, MIT, Madison,    throughout everywhere,  California, doing dissertations  on migration and refugees and  immigration because this is such  a unique experiment that  happened in Wausau.  So it's a story that doesn't go  away.  And it shouldn't, should it?  What's it like today in Wausau?  Well, kids actually get along.  You look at Wausau today and  rumors of dog-eating families  never were true.  There was a drive-by shooting  with two gang members. 

 But for the most part it's an  experiment that's working.  Are there problems?  Absolutely.  The amount of Southeast Asians  per capita in schools has gone  down, the middle of the graph is  1997-98.  You can see 1992 is the  left-hand side, after I left the  school board it just kept  climbing.  Now it's coming back off.  The number of Asians in the  actual schools has actually  dropped, but the amount of  Asians in Wausau is actually  quite high.  This is a graph that shows you  the enrollments in the Wausau  school district, but this is  also the statistics for Wausau.  Remember I told you 1992 Wausau  was one in 10, today Wausau is  one in four Southeast Asian.  75% of Wausau is white.  The Asians are 20%, they're one  in five. 

 The blacks and Hispanics are  climbing.  We're getting a lot of Hispanics  in the schools.  A whole different set of social  problems, a whole different set.  So Wausau is integrated.  No question about it.  The elementary schools are  fairly well integrated.  The high school is.  But more importantly remember  that piece they said in 60  Minutes if they start to talk to  each other in first, second,  third, fourth grade when there's  no outside influences from  parents, they'll talk their  whole life.  The first black I talked to was  in Humanities when I sat down to  lecture.  I've got hundreds of black  friends now. 

 They aren't strange to me.  They shouldn't be.  Look in the audience in Madison  today.  You don't look at somebody and  say, oh, there's an Asian over  there, there's a black over  there.  It's just a student going to the  UW, getting an education.  So I think it's working.  I think if you talk to most  people in Wausau it's working.  They're graduating valedictorian  in the high schools.  The last 10 years I give out a  scholarship for a foundation I  sit on at Wausau East, we give  out a scholarship to a Southeast  Asian and I think the last three  out of seven years a Southeast  Asian has been 4.0.  But there are still problems. 

 Housing.  They still are lower income, and  they still congregate in lower  income parts of town.  One of the biggest problems we  have though is positive  reinforcement.  When you were all in high school  I bet you a dollar a doughnut  that you had positive  reinforcement from your parents.  They made sure you got good  grades.  You wanted to come to Madison.  Very competitive to get into  this school.  When I went to school in '75 you  sign your name up and come on  down.  Now I watch my kids struggle to  get into a university of this  caliber.  They don't get that. 

 I talked to a Southeast Asian  teacher friend of mine and I  asked him, I said, what's it  like in school now today besides  one in four?  He said, well, it's interesting.  Remember the social experiment I  told you about?  It's very interesting because  half the Southeast Asians and  Hmongs have parents who speak  English because they were raised  in America.  Half don't.  The camps closed five years ago.  The last camp closed five years  ago.  My Southeast Asian teacher  friend yesterday at Wausau East  said, "Good morning, class"  in Spanish.  They're all Hmong.  And they all looked at him and  said, what's that Mr. Hagge?  And he said, that's  "Good morning, class"  in Spanish.  And he said, how do you say that  in Hmong?  Half the class looked at each  other and go, well, I don't  really know.  And the other half said what it  is. 

 So half this class, English is  their language.  Half the class, they go home and  they go from speaking English in  school to the only language they  can communicate with their  family is Southeast Asian.  It's like the movie Gran Torino.  We became to understand each  other.  It's taken 25 years but now when  we see a Hmong on the sidewalk,  most of us aren't threatened.  The other problem that we have  in Wausau with the Southeast  Asians to date, it today's  headlines.  This is this morning on the way  down to Madison.  I grabbed it and it says, Hmong  Violence Meeting Historic.  The Southeast Asians are a clan  civilization.  They're like tribesmen. 

 The head of the clan is the big  banana.  Females in a clan are  suppressed.  We're seeing quite a bit of  violence, domestic violence.  We've had some murders in town  where the husband has killed the  wife for trying to divorce.  There are still situations where  the female is told who you're  going to marry and have sex for  the first time at age 13-14.  We prosecute these people  because our laws don't  allow that, but it happens.  For the first time that I've  seen, clan leaders will address  treatment of women.  If a clan person decides that  this is a problem, we can't put  our head in the sand anymore, I  think a change will happen.  But up until now the clans have  basically kind of not talked  about it because they don't  sanction it but if they don't  say anything, it can go on.  So the problems that we see in  Wausau today are just problems  every city is going to see. 

 I want to stick around for  another 30 years.  I want to see what happens.  I want to see if the Southeast  Asians in the high schools and  elementary schools speak English  and are productive citizens more  so than today.  Because a lot of what we thought  was going to happen, hasn't  happened.  Basically, back up here a  second, let's get back to the  story at hand.  Why are we here today?  What's the class all about?  Wausau is just a piece of the  puzzle.  It's about you, all of you.  When you graduate from Madison,  your main focus right now is  academics.  I hope.  Some of you probably worry about  getting an underage at the  Mifflin Street Block Party in a  couple of months. 

 (laughter)  But you're here  for the academics.  How many people in the audience  are volunteering today, doing  something besides academics?  Not bad.  It's usually a small percentage.  But you're going to get out of  school and you're going to have  a professional life.  I'm still a dentist, I also grow  cranberries, I have a cranberry  marsh in Tomah, Wisconsin, with  my wife Linda.  And I run two companies  professionally.  Lots of activity, lots of  boards, lots of meetings.  That's how I get income.  I also have a personal life.  Those are my four kids. 

 I've taken that picture almost  every year since they were born.  They were on my back until two  years ago.  Two years ago they sat on my  back and lifted their feet up at  the cottage for the picture, the  horse picture, and my back went  out for two weeks.  (laughter)  This was last November,  I said okay, gang,  I'm on top.  My point being is you have a  personal life.  My particular case, I have an  empty nest next year.  Looking forward to doing some  traveling with my wife.  The kids are out of the house.  It's going to be completely  different than we've had the  last 23 years.  I have lots of hobbies, but  volunteerism has always been a  part of my life. 

 Starting when I was younger and  got out of college and the  school board and president of --  council Boy Scouts in Wausau.  You think after that buzz saw I  went through in the '90s with  the recall that I'd climb into a  shell and close the door,  far from it.  It's just the way I was raised.  I go back to the situation I  talked in the very, very  beginning, for whom much is  given, much is expected and  required.  I was given a lot.  I was given an education by my  parents.  I was given a good life.  I was brought up well.  And I feel that in order for me  to live my life, I need to give  back.  All of you here today are given  an education, be it from your  family, grants, scholarships or  maybe you're working the  7-Eleven, I don't know. 

 But you're given something here.  You're at one of the top  universities in the country,  will you give back?  What are your goals in life  going to be?  Going to get out of school,  going to become a fortune 500  CEO and take the money and buy  Maseratis and Ferraris and  travel?  If you do and that's all you do,  you're going to have a big void  in your life.  Because it's a balancing act.  And how you balance what you do  when you leave the university  tells you what kind of person  you are.  It's difficult to judge your  personal life with  professionalism and  volunteerism, but the mix of  these three in proper amounts  will make you sit back in your  rocking chair someday and smile  at the enjoyment life can really  bring to yourself.  So think about it.  I know your mind is worried  about next week, but I applaud  the people that raised their  hand and said they volunteer  today.  To go to school and volunteer at  the same time, I never did that.  I wish I did, but I didn't.  The last slide is goal setting. 

 That's my son Fritz.  He's an engineering student,  third year at Madison.  Two years ago we climbed Mount  Aconcagua.  It's the highest point in the  western hemisphere, South and  North America.  22,841 feet.  He got done with finals, we  picked him up, we flew down to  South America, Chile, Argentina,  we climbed, I got him back, he  was back in class two days  later.  Tight schedule.  But it was a goal that we both  set many years ago when we  started climbing together when  he was 13, 14, 15.  The question is, what's your  goal going to be in life?  Where are you going to go?  What are they?  And if you achieve them, you can  sit back and be a happy person.  I'll take questions now about  anything I talked about, you've  got about 5-10 minutes. 

 >> Yasiri: And the students know  that I pass the mic to them  so I see a hand  at the back of the room.  Let me run up there.  >> Prehn: It's so quiet in here.  >> Hi.  So when you were on the board    and you were theoretically  fighting against this and  getting everybody organized and  being a community organizer, did  anybody call you racist?  Did people in the community  think you were racist?  >> Prehn: No, if anything they  called me a flaming liberal.  And if you knew me I'm actually  a fiscally conservative kind of  guy.  I'm a very conservative guy.  I come from a conservative  family.  And so for me to be out there as  a community organizer and school  board and say let's tackle this  problem, let's do something  about it, it was out of  character for me.  So nobody everybody called me a  racist, but I got called a  liberal, a bleeding heart  liberal many, many times. 

 Is that your question?  >> Yeah, and how would you see,  that's different from your  character, I guess, as you say,  but how do you think that has  impacted the rest of your life  with working with these and now  you say you have many friends  who are of particularly  Southeast Asian background and  what not?  >> Prehn: Enriched.  There's been problems with  Southeast Asians and some people  would say I wish they would have  never showed up, we wouldn't  have had all these issues.  But I'll tell you having them in  town the last 25 years has  really been a blessing.  Because that's the world we live  in.  Living in a town 100% white in  northern Wisconsin and if that  perpetuated and continued it's a  rude awakening getting out in  the big dog world.  So many of these people are just  fascinating to listen to their  stories and listen to their  lives and have them ask me about  my upbringing.  It makes you a better person.  It's like taking classes like  this today.  It's enrichment.  So I guess the key word there is  by doing what I did I just felt  more enriched. 

 >> You talked about from whom  much is given, much is expected.  Are you starting to see now that  the education these Southeast  Asians are starting to receive  in Wausau that they're coming  back to help their communities?  Has it come full circle?  Or what's the evolution there?  >> Prehn: I don't think full  circle to answer your question.  I think they've definitely  come back.  The Hmong community is very,  very tight-knit.  It's clan, like I said.  But there's many multifaceted  task force that the Southeast  Asians and the whites are on  together.  There was a gang task force,  interesting comment, there was a  gang task force when that  drive-by shooting happened.  We need to talk about this gang  situation.  We had a task force.  It ran for two or three years  and there was never ever a  drive-by shooting so they  disbanded because there really  isn't a need for one. 

 But they give back too.  They haven't come full circle  yet.  There are very few public  servants that are Southeast  Asian in Wausau.  I'm trying to get one to be on  the Boy Scout board in Wausau.  It's tough because they have to  get permission from their clan  to do it.  So you're talking about a  situation that's just incredibly  difficult to break, but the new  graduates that come out at 17,  18, 19, 20, I don't know if  anybody knows any, is there any  Southeast Asians in the audience  today?  They are part of us now.  And they've got a lot to  contribute.  Their personalities, that I've  seen, have been a little bit  secluded, a little shy, they  aren't forceful, but they're  getting that way and they  should.  They've been here for 25 years,  some of them.  And some of them are born and  raised, are natural citizens  here, they were born here. 

 They weren't given papers at a  later time.  They were born in America and  they were raised in America, but  they have that influence that's  changed over time.  So it hasn't come full circle  but it's going to, I believe.  >> Hi, my name is Brad.  Do you have any regrets at how  about you went through this  whole process?  >> Prehn: Absolutely, Brad,  that's a good question.  After we got thrown off the  school board I wondered if we  did the right thing.  I think we set in motion a  situation where we hit the  problem head on, but I reflect  back and I think maybe we forced  it too fast.  We thought we knew the answer.  But I was 32, 33, 34 years old.  At 52, my age now, I don't think  I'd approach it the same way. 

 I'd try to skin it a different  way.  Clearly we didn't have the  public behind us.  We may never have but maturity  plays a factor.  I think we could have done  things differently and maybe  prevented the recal, but it's  how our society migrated and how  it worked.  Good question.  >> Hi, my name's Dan.  I was just wondering what the  graduation rates from high  school are like today from the  Southeast Asian percentage as  compared to when they first  started out.  >> Prehn: I can't give you  the actual statistics,  the answer to that  question, I think Wausau's  graduation percentage is 92% of  the people graduate.  The Southeast Asian migration I  can't answer what the percentage  is but it's a heck of a lot  better than it was 20 years ago.  And I get that from my ESL  friend who teaches English as a  second language. 

 He's actually worried about his  job because as we get less and  less and less Southeast Asians  that don't speak English, that's  his job, English as a second  language.  We had 17 at one time.  I think we're down to nine now.  So that's a sign that tells me  the language barrier has been  dropped.  There's no question they're  graduating more, but I can't  give you the actually statistic  for that.  >> Yasiri: Is there  a final question for Fred?  Well, I want to recognize that  Fred's wife Linda and his son  Fritz are at the back of the  room and we want to thank them  for joining us today, too.  And Fred, we can't thank you  enough from driving all the way  down from Wausau.  So we thought we'd bring you a  badger mug because we know  you're a badger at heart.  >> Prehn: That's right.  Bucky, Bucky. 

 >> Yasiri: And I know  you join me in thanking  Fred Prehn for his story and  his service to his community.  >> Prehn: Thank you.  (applause)