Members of Young Americans Federation, College Republicans and other conservative UW-Madison students traveled to Maryland’s National Harbor this weekend to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference hosted by the American Conservative Union.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both spoke at the conference. During his two-hour-long speech, Trump announced he plans on issuing an executive order that would protect free speech on college campuses by withholding federal funding from schools that fail to create inclusive spaces for all political viewpoints.
Trump did not provide details regarding what the order would look like in practice, but he did cite the case of University of California, Berkeley student Hayden Williams as justification for his planned order. Williams was assaulted on Feb. 19 by a non-student for handing out conservative political literature on campus, according to a Berkleyside article.
Josh Waldoch is one of the conservative students who spent the weekend at the conference and was in the audience during Trump's remarks. He estimated that roughly a quarter of the attendees were college students like him.
Waldoch believes protecting free speech on campus is key to achieving a campus climate where students feel safe engaging with challenging ideas. However, he is not convinced Trump's proposed executive order is the right solution.
“I think that it's a really messy issue, and I don't think an executive order is a good way to solve [the issue]," Waldoch said. "It's going to be be a problem that is more drawn out and looked at more that just a quick sign of the pen."
After talking to other students in the crowd, he doesn't think he's alone in his worries.
He voiced additional concerns over the scope and constitutionally of the proposed order.
“One of my biggest concerns is that an executive order like this could be executive overreach," Waldoch said.
UW-Madison saw its own run-in with free speech concerns earlier this year when professor Ken Mayer was accused of having a biased syllabus his American Presidency course.
Waldoch dismissed this event saying, “the issue of the syllabus was really over-blown. A couple of conservatives got offended by it and made it a bigger deal that it was.”
It is unknown whether and when Trump will follow-up with details regarding what type of funds could be at risk if universities do not comply with requirements.
