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University of Wisconsin approves protest punishment policy

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin System leaders approved a policy Friday that calls for suspending and expelling students who disrupt campus speeches and presentations, saying students need to listen to all sides of issues and arguments.

The Board of Regents adopted the language on a voice vote during a meeting at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie. The policy states that students found to have twice engaged in violence or other disorderly conduct that disrupts others’ free speech would be suspended. Students found to have disrupted others’ free expression three times would be expelled.

...

The policy comes amid complaints from conservatives across the U.S. that right-leaning speakers aren’t afforded the same level of respect on campuses as liberal presenters. Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 shouted down and traded obscene gestures with ex-Breitbart editor and conservative columnist Ben Shapiro.

The University of California-Berkeley canceled an appearance by right-wing firebrand Milo Yiannopoulus in September. Four protests have turned violent on that campus and in the nearby city in recent months.

The new Wisconsin policy mirrors Republican legislation the state Assembly passed in June, though the Senate has yet to act on the bill.

Regents President John Robert Behling told the board before Friday’s vote that adopting the policy ahead of the legislation shows “a responsiveness to what’s going on in the Capitol, which helps build relationships.”

Republican Gov. Scott Walker appointed all but two of the board’s 18 members. State public schools Superintendent Tony Evers and Wisconsin Technical College System Board President Mark Tyler are automatically regents by virtue of their offices.

Evers, a Democrat running against Walker in next year’s gubernatorial election, cast the only dissenting vote. He accused the regents of sacrificing free speech to curry favor with Republican lawmakers.

“This policy will chill and suppress free speech on this campus and all campuses,” Evers said.

Other Democratic opponents charge that the policy doesn’t clearly define what type of conduct is considered disruptive.

“Who’s going to show up to a protest if they think they could be potentially expelled?” Democratic state Rep. Chris Taylor, whose district includes the flagship Madison campus, said during a Thursday news conference on the policy.

A senior at the university, Savion Castro, accused the regents of “capitulating to a band of right-wing extremists.”

“The First Amendment is supposed to be messy and contentious and allow contentious debate,” Castro said during the news conference. “The whole point of protest is to disrupt the status quo and make people uncomfortable.”

https://apnews.com/866eec6efb9841088157838281339db8

Protesting is now essentially a suspendable offense, wherea before the worst that could happen to anyone is some speaker gets drowned out, now the worst that happens is students lose their access to education.
 
The policy comes amid complaints from conservatives across the U.S. that right-leaning speakers aren’t afforded the same level of respect on campuses as liberal presenters. Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016 shouted down and traded obscene gestures with ex-Breitbart editor and conservative columnist Ben Shapiro.

The University of California-Berkeley canceled an appearance by right-wing firebrand Milo Yiannopoulus in September. Four protests have turned violent on that campus and in the nearby city in recent months.

We're watching far-right white supremacist views become normalized in real-time here. The justification for this policy is that nazis should be allowed a safe space.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
The University of California-Berkeley canceled an appearance by right-wing firebrand Milo Yiannopoulus in September. Four protests have turned violent on that campus and in the nearby city in recent months.

Anyone know what four speakers these were for?
 
I'm going to need to see a definition of disorderly conduct. People counter protesting, telling others that while they have a right to free speech their ideas blow chunks should not be a suspendable offence.
 

Dyle

Member
Yeah this was disappointing but unsurprising that the board of regents approved this after the bill in the assembly was ignored ahead of the budget deliberations. The thing that bothers me about this, beyond the obvious political nature of it, is that it's totally unnecessary, as university rules already give administrators broad powers to deliver punishments for this. Adding a minimum sentence is unnecessary and removes from them the ability to judge how and to what degree these actions, which are defined quite broadly, should deserve punishment. I'm looking forward to supporting Evers in the gubernatorial race, so his dissent here is nice.

Also the UW system is fairly unique in that it has had a recent example in which most moral people would argue that it would be wrong to not intervene, when Milo called out and misgendered a student attending a speech at UW Milwaukee. If students were to disrupt a similar event, where the featured speaker was blatantly demeaning a student using transphobic hate speech in front of everyone, would the university system dole out this kind of punishment? I guess we'll find out soon.

Wisconsin just seems like it gets shittier and shittier.
It is, but at least Madison is still keeping up our early 20th century reputation as the progressive state. We're doing our best to stop the bleeding
 

Mask

Member
Jesus, when did free speech become "let horrible pieces of shit spout hateful rhetoric at colleges"?

Also, isn't blocking protesting pretty much blocking the protesters from having their free speech too? Pretty sure free speech doesn't mean "let random shitbags spread disgusting views free of criticism" :/

When will the fucking colleges wise up and stop letting these fuckwads speak when all they're doing is abusing free speech in the first place?
 
We wouldn't want to badger the white supremacists with protests now would we?
This is a genuine question - if the problem were that left wing speakers (let's say for the sake of a tangible example, a pro-Trans Rights speaker) was being peacefully but verbally shut down by right leaning students, do you think the school board would have an obligation to act to protect that person's ability to be heard on campus?
 
Jesus, when did free speech become "let horrible pieces of shit spout hateful rhetoric at colleges"?

Also, isn't blocking protesting pretty much blocking the protesters from having their free speech too? Pretty sure free speech doesn't mean "let random shitbags spread disgusting views free of criticism" :/

When will the fucking colleges wise up and stop letting these fuckwads speak when all they're doing is abusing free speech in the first place?

"free speech" has always been as a cheap cover by oppressors to defend racism and other forms of bigotry. Nevermind the fact that this policy could infringe on student's rights.
 
If it were only applied to students physically or violently preventing speakers from speaking, i.e. marching in and snatching Ben Shapiro's microphone or blocking doorways so Milo can't even get in the building, I guess it's fair, but it sure seems like there's a high potential for abuse.
 

Dyle

Member
This is a genuine question - if the problem were that left wing speakers (let's say for the sake of a tangible example, a pro-Trans Rights speaker) was being peacefully but verbally shut down by right leaning students, do you think the school board would have an obligation to act to protect that person's ability to be heard on campus?

Yes they would be obligated to do so, but not by putting forward a zero-tolerance policy that doesn't take into account what they did, what the speaker was saying, their past academic history, etc. The universities already had amble power to punish people for disrupting events at the discretion of each university's administration, this only puts a burdensome minimum sentence with no logical reason except to chill protests in a time of great political division.

Also that kind of thing does happen. At my alma mater, in Wisconsin but not in the UW system, a tiny minority of students put together a stupid campaign to "protect free speech", which mostly consisted of them showing documentaries mocking PC culture, laughing at them, drinking in public spaces, and then not allowing discussion. At one of those events a student disrupted it, calling them out for their bs, and well, nothing happened, because the university recognized that she had a right to speak and that she left soon after speaking her mind, not escalating the situation to a point where it was dangerous, properly understanding the nuances of the situation. The club was later denied recognition as an official campus club, because they didn't fulfill basic requirements of every club, and in protest their members, along with several of the organizers who brought Milo to UW Milwaukee, made a scene of calling students and faculty members slurs and claiming that the club was only denied because they were white. Of course it was also at the same time that the campus was being peppered with racist graffiti, vandallism, and threats posted on campus message boards. The university dealt with the racist students through the normal disciplinary channels without having to deal with an unnecessary minimum sentence that would have limited their ability to effectively and relatively peacefully resolve the situation.

This kind of rule ties the hands of admins and will only make it more difficult for college campuses in Wisconsin to remain open to productive civil discussion.
 
This doesn't really seem like it'll hold up in court. ACLU, activate.

IT will not, no. The reason being that University of Wisconsin, just like UC Berkeley, gets federal funding. Just like Berkeley can't disallow certain worldviews from speaking without a very good, physical safety reason, University of Wisconsin cannot chill free speech by attaching punishments for doing so. It will get struck down. If it attached punishments for violent protests explicitly, it'd be a different story, but a vague statement could be construed anywhere from holding a sign to being near someone holding a sign.
 

erlim

yes, that talented of a member
This was my college, it already got way junkier because of Scott Walkers idiocy, now it's even worse.
 
While I'm not a fan of the trend of shouting down your opposition, I don't think this is the best way to combat it. I can probably get behind suspending or expelling students who get violent during protests. That's not protected free speech. And it's probably covered under other prohibitions. But for just being "disruptive"? That seems a bit vague and far-reaching. I suppose there are some circumstances where I'd be okay with punishing the student (e.g. pulling a fire alarm in order to force an evacuation or issuing a fake bomb threat to prevent a speaker from coming), but again I imagine those situations are covered by other rules.

I would hazard a guess that this well end up in the courts and get struck down as unconstitutional unless the policy is very explicit about what connotes "disruptive" behavior. That said, my campus had "free-speech zones" which withstood judicial scrutiny. So it's possible that they could restrict protests to outside a speaker's venue and not run afoul of the first amendment. That is, they might be able to punish those who protest in a lecture hall while a speech is taking place as long as the school allows protesting outside. That could be argued to serve a significant government interest by protecting the speech of the lecturer. Which means it might be a legal time/place/manner restriction on free speech. But I'm definitely not a lawyer, so I could easily be wrong.
 
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