Some UW System students will get a survey in their email Monday, asking whether they feel comfortable expressing their views on campus, along with dozens of other questions about free speech.
The controversial free speech survey was set for release last spring, but was delayed due to concerns from faculty and staff. UW-Whitewater’s interim chancellor even resigned in protest. But new UW System President Jay Rothman decided to move forward with it this fall.
The survey asks students to answer about 30 pages of multiple choice questions, including if they’ve stopped themselves from expressing views about controversial topics in class, if they’ve felt pressured by an instructor to agree with a viewpoint, and their understanding of the First Amendment.
System President Jay Rothman told reporters Friday what he’s interested in hearing from the results.
"I’m really interested in hearing about, what is the climate around freedom of expression? Are there concerns around self-censorship? I’m concerned about how students view civil dialogue. Can you raise issues on campus and have those conversations with your friends without being labeled or tainted? Can you ask a question in good faith and not having somebody say that you’re X or you're Y?"
Rothman said the survey has been updated since the spring with input from faculty, staff and students through shared governance groups. He didn’t provide specific examples of what questions have changed.
"We’re asking questions—there’s not an agenda to this," Rothman said. "We really want to understand what the climate is, what people’s understandings are, how they view these issues. Because unless you understand those issues, you can’t change, you can’t enhance them. There’s a lot of great freedom of expression that goes on in our campuses, the survey is intended to help us find out how we can make it even better."
Rothman didn’t offer concrete examples of how the system might use the data.
The survey stems from UW-Stout’s Menard Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation. The center is funded by at least two major conservative donors, the John Menard family and the Charles Koch Foundation. The research team leading the survey is made up of professors from UW-Stout and UW-Eau Claire.
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly raised concerns about liberal bias on UW campuses. Legislators introduced a bill last session that would have punished schools for free speech violations.
Some UW faculty are worried that the survey results could be weaponized against schools. The UW System relies on the state Legislature to determine much of its funding.
Nathan McGovern is a professor at UW-Whitewater and member of the faculty union. He believes the survey is driven by political pressure from Republican lawmakers.
"There was a similar survey done in Florida not too long ago, and it seemed there as in here, that part of the purpose was to go on a fishing expedition for quotes about professors who were supposedly indoctrinating students," McGovern said. "That’s our fear here too."
Whitewater’s interim chancellor, Jim Henderson, resigned last spring in protest of the free speech survey. Henderson criticized what he saw as top-down decision making.
McGovern, the Whitewater professor, says the resignation was a blow to the campus, and he isn’t sure whether it resulted in meaningful change to the survey or the process behind it.
"I hate to say that he did it all in vain," McGovern said. "But I just really don’t know."
UW-Milwaukee Faculty Senate chair Mark Schwartz is glad the survey was delayed until after the election. Schwartz said he is one of the faculty representatives who met with a researcher to give input on the survey.
"It’s a potentially volatile issue and having something like that be done at a politically charged time is probably not a good idea," Schwartz said. "We thought it was a positive development when the implementation was delayed and we were given an opportunity to talk about it."
The survey is being sent to random sample of a students beginning Monday. Researchers are hoping for at least 500 students from each university to respond before Dec. 14.
When the University of Florida sent students its version of a free speech survey, only about 2% responded.
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