Earlier this year, student encampments took over parts of both UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee campuses calling for an end to genocide in Gaza. As a new school year kicks off, the bombings continue, but those student groups and universities have undergone some big changes.
Five UW-Milwaukee student groups were suspended in July over an Instagram post that the university said used “intimidating language” aimed at the local Jewish community and students. The groups argued they were using the same language the World Court used when describing Israel’s actions. And then, just last week, UW-Madison updated its protest policy, which has already been called "unconstitutional."
Kelly Meyerhofer, higher education reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, offers some clarity on everything that's been happening.
Despite the protests beginning on both UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee's campuses roughly the same time, the responses at the two colleges were very different. As Meyerhofer explains, Republican lawmakers at the state capitol called for UW to enforce their own rule, "no camping allowed on campus."
"By day three, the UW-Madison Chancellor sent in police to break up the encampment," says Meyerhofer. "It became sort of violent. There was clashes between protesters and police and it really changed the dynamic there."
Meanwhile, UWM was not getting as much attention and, as a result, wasn't facing as much pressure. UWM also never sent in police.
After about two weeks, both campuses reached agreements with protesters. Meyerhofer notes the difference in each university's responses to the protests, saying that while UW remained mostly politically neutral, UWM's response was not seen the same way.
"[UW-System] President Jay Rothman issued a very unusual, public rebuke of UWM, saying that, 'We want our universities to maintain viewpoint neutrality when it comes to controversial topics,'" says Meyerhofer. "And then I think about a week later, UWM Chancellor [Mark Mone] apologized for taking that position."
On July 3rd, Chancellor Mone announced he would be stepping down following the 2024-2025 academic school year.
As UW looks ahead to the current academic year, they announced new updates to their protest policy last week, restricting "expressive activity" within 25-feet of a university building. This policy could impact all UW-System campuses.
"It's often the case [that] Madison will take the lead in passing a policy or making revisions, doing some project piloting just because they have more resources to test it out," Meyerhofer says. "And a lot of times the smaller campuses will adopt the same policy or similar policies or follow suit. So, I would not be surprised if UWM also announces changes to their policies that are very similar to Madison."
WUWM is a service of UW-Milwaukee.
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