University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman defended recent campus policies restricting expressive activity and UW leadership statements during a keynote address Friday.
Rothman focused on restoring a “quality of dialogue” and boosting free speech across the UW System at the Capitol during an event hosted by Free Speech for Campus, Wisconsin Association of Scholars (WAS) and Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civic Dialogue (WICCD). WAS is a conservative-leaning group founded in 1987 to preserve “Western intellectual heritage.”
In his speech and subsequent panel discussions, Rothman focused on boosting primarily conservative speech through past and current UW System initiatives such as WICCD, a UW System-led initiative that promotes “civil dialogue in a robust marketplace of ideas,” according to their website.
“We didn't get to this point overnight,” Rothman said, asserting a free speech crisis across the UW system.
Expressive activity and institutional neutrality
Rothman addressed two UW policies: expressive activity and institutional neutrality that have made waves in recent weeks.
The Expressive Activity Policy restricts certain “expressive activities” within 25 feet of university facility entrances and imposes size limitations for signs in buildings, specific sounds and restrictions on protest activity during select times on campus areas.
A constitutional law expert and ACLU of Wisconsin lawyer told The Daily Cardinal the policy may be unconstitutional since it is vaguely defined and could infringe on “perfectly constitutional First Amendment conduct.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison also adopted a policy of institutional neutrality, where the university and their representatives will “generally refrain” from making statements on controversial topics on behalf of the university.
Rothman said these policies were in line with UW System’s adherence to the First Amendment.
“Our adherence to the First Amendment requires that these policies be applied equally, without consideration of the viewpoint,” Rothman said. “Indeed, the First Amendment protects a broad range of speech, including speech that many may find disturbing, offensive, even reprehensible.”
Rothman voiced his hope that these policies will allow students with differing viewpoints to share their opinion, noting the 2022-2023 UW System free speech survey, which found that students feared ostracization from peers when speaking about controversial topics such as abortion.
Rothman’s perspective
Rothman also outlined the factors he believes is leading to a decrease in the “quality of dialogue” across campuses: political polarization, cancel culture, social media, echo chambers, irritability and lack of listening to other perspectives.
Citing the free speech survey, Rothman said one third of students believe administrators should not invite or disinvite controversial speakers or visitors if their message is offensive.
Rothman called many of these issues “systemic,” and said it would take the UW System a long time to address them, but hailed initiatives like deliberation dinners — where students read and discuss multiple sides of controversial topics — and the new free expression training module required for freshmen – as steps in the right direction for UW-Madison.
Speakers tackle “mistreatment” of conservative students
With a focus on freedom of expression, discussion quickly turned to the dominance of liberal viewpoints on college campuses.
Former UW-Madison political science professor Ryan Owens said conservative students are “mistreated” on campus and supported a broadening of the political spectrum on campuses. Owens addressed alleged systemic issues that lead to a lack of political diversity of speech, comparing university approaches to racial and gender differences.
Owens referenced the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) survey, which found conservative students feel their viewpoints are dominated by liberal arguments across campus.
“We would not tolerate the kind of imbalance that we see in universities today, if we were talking about race or sex, if we were to say, well, this is a one professor at a time dynamic,” Owens said. “It has to be a much more engaged, energetic and active approach to address that remedy.”
Protests and free speech
Protests stemming from Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza also became a focus of speakers, many of whom defended the police raid last May on the pro-Palestine encampment at UW-Madison.
“Generally, protests are only good at generating headlines,” said Michael Moscicke, a policy director for State Senator Rachael Cabral-GuevaraI. “I think if we focus too much on them, if we give them more attention, they're just going to generate more headlines and become more successful.”
Rothman also said lawful protest wasn’t the issue and praised UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin for sending in the police to dismantle the protests.
“Students that are protesting lawfully, God bless and go for it, even if I absolutely disagree, go for it,” Rothman said. “But while we must uphold the First Amendment, we must also uphold the law where organizations and students are engaged in conduct that violates student organization codes just plain illegal.”
Looking forward
When asked for immediate efforts for improving free speech on campus, Rothman said it would take time, but he is optimistic students are moving in the right direction.
He elaborated on WICCD’s request for $2.5 million from the state Legislature, where he said a portion of that money would “certainly” go to WICCD and the rest would go to campuses.
Rothman said he would like WICCD to have a national director to encourage free speech on campuses outside of Wisconsin.
Bryna Goeking is an arts editor for The Daily Cardinal. She also reports on campus news. Follow her on Twitter @BrynaGoeking.
