There seems to be a few shadows cast over the definition of free speech for the University of Wisconsin System.
The UW System Board of Regents declined to hear the concerns of a group of protesting students at their last meeting. The students, organized by United Council of UW Students, were protesting UW’s current climate for students of color, and this wasn’t the first time the regents shut them out.
Students, faculty protest Board of Regents committee meeting on tenure
Earlier in December, the student protesters were refused a chance to speak publicly with the Board of Regents and were prevented from giving them a list of demands.
Demonstrators demand better environment for students of color at UW System schools
The funny thing is, this went down around roughly the same time the regents had taken up a policy supporting freedom of speech.
I guess they must have been talking about something other than the first amendment of the Constitution.
Sarcasm aside, the fact that the Board of Regents is refusing to hear the complaints of students whose lives and educations they as a governing committee are supposed to be working towards the betterment of, seems rather problematic especially after supposedly adopting a policy supporting free speech.
This situation almost sounds like a bad joke. There is pure, painful irony in the fact that this group of protesting students striving to make UW a better place was met with blunt rejection by the Board of Regents when trying to voice their opinions, right around the time when the board was taking up policies of free speech.
These students haven’t even been allowed to hand a list of complaints to the regents, let alone actually discuss changes they would like to see on UW System campuses in hopes of ousting the social injustices they’ve experienced.
Any governing board that apparently has too hefty of an agenda to hear the complaints of those they represent, definitely needs to rethink their priorities. These instances of brute rejection are downright backwards and ultimately bring about questions of whose betterment the Board of Regents is actually striving towards.
Phil Michaelson ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering.
