The free speech policies at UW-Whitewater have been in flux lately, but UW-Madison Dean of Students Roger Howard said students here have no reason to worry.
“Our general presumption is that if you want to hold a protest, that’s fine,” he said.
The UW System has an umbrella student freedom policy in place that governs all UW schools. Although each state campus has authority to regulate time, place and manner of protest, content of speech is untouchable, said a legal analyst for the system, Patricia Brady.
However, administrators at individual schools vary on their reactions to the scope of student freedom.
UW-Whitewater Chancellor Jack Miller recently reversed a speech code enacted Dec. 1 after criticism from university faculty and students. Whitewater officials said a group of concerned students and staff will review the code and submit a revision plan by tomorrow.
UW political science professor Donald Downs called the reversal “a victory for campus free speech.”
“It makes me glad to see students willing to come forward and defend their constitutional freedoms,” he said.
UW has traditionally been a politically active school, and Howard said this culture influences the administrational reaction of the protests that occur on campus.
“We are a fairly tolerant place,” he said. “We tolerate a specific amount of disruption before we do anything.”
Howard said it has been decades since UW-Madison had problems with student activism, and the policies are working fine.
Although UW-Whitewater’s new protest policy limited student free speech to two campus open green areas, UW students are free to use any outdoor campus space for whatever they may desire, provided they act reasonably.
“What they protest about is not an appropriate judgment for us to make,” Howard said. “But, the specific conduct becomes an issue when it interferes with learning.”
Indoor facilities are primarily reserved for university groups, but non-university groups are permitted to use space if “the meetings or activities of a non-University group will contribute to and serve the University’s purposes.”
The only requirement for an outdoor protest is that students inform campus police if they plan on using electronic amplification.
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, there were conflicts between student activists and administrators, Howard said. Tear gas was used, windows were broken and at times the National Guard was called, but things have been peaceful since then.
The following are excerpts from the UW System Administrative Code regarding campus protests:
“The search for truth is the central duty of the University, but truth will not be found if the scholar is not free, it will not be understood if the student is not free, it will not be used if the citizen is not free. At a time when both truth and freedom are under attack, the University of Wisconsin must seek the one and defend the other. It must employ with utmost energy the power of truth and freedom for the benefit of mankind.”
“Students have the right accorded to all persons by the Constitution, to the freedom of speech, peaceable assembly, petition and association. Students and student organizations may examine and discuss all questions of interest to them, and express opinions publicly as well as privately. They may support causes by lawful means which do not disrupt the operations of the university or of organizations accorded the use of University facilities.”
