[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Kohl Center officials silenced an organized attempt by the Associated Students of Madison to protest limited student seating Tuesday night during the highly anticipated University of Wisconsin men’s basketball game versus Illinois.

ASM members passed out fliers to fans seated outside the student section instructing students to raise fliers once the Badgers scored their 20th point. The protest intended to bring attention to the small student section, said Visibility Blitz coordinator Jeff Wright.

Although the ASM fliers adhered to NCAA regulations, Kohl Center officials still “ripped them right out of my hands,” according to Wright.

Wright said he phoned the Kohl Center prior to the game and was told if the fliers were no larger than 8.5-by-11 inches and did not contain any obscene words, they could be used. However, Wright said that as soon as he began passing out the fliers to fans sitting on the edges of the student section, the fliers were quickly confiscated by the game day staff.

“I think many Kohl Center officials do not know the policies governing the center’s events,” Wright said. “I think there is some confusion on their end.”

According to Wright, he then contacted another Kohl Center official, who informed him it was too late to receive the fliers from staff because the game had already started.

Eyal Halamish, an ASM member also involved in the planning committee for the event, said the students abided by all of the rules for the fliers but were still silenced.

“[Taking the signs was] absolutely disgusting, and I personally think it was ridiculous,” Halamish said. “We deserve an apology from the people running the Kohl Center.”

UW Athletic Board member Zach Frey said it would be unlikely for the board to approve expanding student seating for several reasons. One of those reasons is most of the funding for UW athletics comes from non-student ticket holders, according to Frey.

However, Frey said the real issue is the size of the Kohl Center, rather than a small student section, as compared to other schools.

“The Kohl Center is too small because when [it] was built, hockey and basketball were not selling out and now they are,” Frey said.

Frey added that short of building a new building, there are not many effective solutions.

Regardless, Frey said he supports ASM’s decision to pursue the expansion of student seating because they are representing a wider range of student interests.

“ASM has never picked up an athletic issue before,” Frey said.

The next plan of action for ASM will be to file a complaint with the athletic administration, Wright said.

“Hopefully they can justify why those posters were taken away,” Wright said.

ASM member Kristina Mueller said there has been a large response from students concerned about student athletic issues, and ASM will continue to advocate this issue.

“Sports are such a big part of this university and it is such a shame to keep students from enjoying that,” Mueller said.