The University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School's Human Rights program hosted a panel discussion Wednesday exploring free speech and dissent on college campuses at UW-Madison and other universities following pro-Palestine protests on campuses nationwide.
Last spring, pro-Palestine encampments erupted on university campuses across the country, calling on their colleges to divest from Israel and push for a ceasefire. Many of these encampments were met with hostility from university administrators, who deployed campus police to remove the demonstrators.
The discussion opened with UW-Madison professor Gay Seidman, who said the protests energized seemingly naive and apolitical students and helped them build solidarity and a sense of purpose.
“It all reminded me how much these moments matter, how these experiences can reshape individual perspectives as well as public opinion,” Siedman said.
Indiana University law professor Steve Sanders said he believes his university’s administration’s desire to show strength and get tough shaped their response to student protesters. Sanders also cited pressure and expectations from major donors who are sympathetic to Israel and skeptical of pro-Palestine protests.
Across the country, schools such as Brown University, Temple University and Brandeis University have suspended their Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters. Brandeis banned the organization altogether, Sabiya Ahamed of Palestine Legal said during the panel discussion.
At UW-Madison, the Office of Student Affairs investigated and issued sanctions against students affiliated with the encampment.
Panelist Howard Schweber, a professor emeritus of political science at UW-Madison, said university policy must balance Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race or national origin in programs that receive federal funding, and freedom of speech rights protected under the First Amendment.
“I recognize the difficulty of their position,” Schweber said. “If the administration wants to preserve the institutional autonomy of the university, it is absolutely essential that they not make themselves vulnerable to charges of anti-Israel bias or antisemitism.”
Looking to the future, Sanders is afraid of what a loss of autonomy might mean for freedom of speech on college campuses.
“I worry that, increasingly, universities won't have the refuge of the courts to give them and reflect the special constitutional status that they have enjoyed,” Sanders said. “That will be bad in all sorts of ways for the freedom of institutions as well as for the speech of faculty and students.”
Moderator Keith Woodward, a geology professor at UW Madison, also pointed out that a new Expressive Activity policy, UW 6013, replaced UW 6011, which “included stipulations for shared governance on teams that did oversight on campus protests,” according to Woodward.
Two teams, the Protest Decision Making Team (PDT) and Protest Administrative Review Team (PART), that were previously included in UW 6011 to prepare for managing protests and to provide oversight in the wake of university action were missing from 6013, effectively removing shared governance from the process, Woodward said.
