University of Wisconsin System
Location: Unknown, Wisconsin
Website: http://www.wisconsin.edu
Type: No Type Yet
Federal Circuit: 7th Circuit
Speech Code Rating
University of Wisconsin System is not currently rated in our system. To request speech code information about this school, please submit a speech code request form.
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University of Wisconsin: Students’ Due Process Rights
March 13, 2009
FIRE successfully persuaded the University of Wisconsin’s Board of Regents to affirm due process rights for students, including the option of a hearing before a committee including student peers, attorney representation in the case of serious allegations, and both e-mail and paper notification of proceedings. The Board had proposed changes to the State Administrative Code governing infractions and judicial procedures within Wisconsin’s public universities that would have limited due process rights and granted more discretion to administrators. FIRE’s Adam Kissel engaged in a speaking tour of University of Wisconsin schools in opposition to these changes, even speaking before the Board […]
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New Wisconsin Regents policy has problems and promise
October 10, 2017
On Oct. 6, the University of Wisconsin System’s Board of Regents adopted a policy intended to promote free speech on campus. The policy explains the System’s commitment to the robust free exchange of ideas and seeks to curb attempts by some to stifle the expression of others. We are happy to see the Regents take action to preserve freedom of speech, but have some reservations about how the policy approaches this important task. The most controversial aspect of the policy is language that would subject those “who engage in violent or other disorderly conduct that materially and substantially disrupts the […]
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UW-Madison Demonstrates What a ‘Green Light’ Definition of a Bias Incident Looks Like
October 6, 2016
Over the past several months, there has been a great deal of media coverage about campus bias-reporting protocols and the threats they present to students’ and faculty members’ freedom of expression. Of course, FIRE has been warning about the problems with these policies for years, and our case archives back up our ongoing concerns regarding their compliance with First Amendment rights and principles. In short, bias-reporting policies routinely promulgate overbroad and vague definitions of so-called “bias incidents” that encompass constitutionally protected expression. Such policies often encourage students to report on one another for perfectly innocuous speech (oftentimes in anonymous fashion, […]
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Wisconsin Legislator’s Threat to Slash UW Budget Over Reading Assignment ‘Cuts to the Core of Academic Freedom’
July 8, 2016
A Wisconsin legislator’s threat yesterday to cut the University of Wisconsin System’s budget over an “obscene” course reading assignment is the latest salvo in what is becoming a years-long war between the university and state lawmakers over academic freedom. State Senator Stephen Nass made the remarks in an email he sent Thursday to email lists for Republicans and Democrats in Wisconsin’s Senate and Assembly. In it, he criticized a reading assignment lecturer Jason Nolen gave in his UW-Madison sociology course titled “Problems of American Racial and Ethnic Minorities”: The reading assignment sparking Nass’ ire is the 2011 essay, “Not just […]
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A Lifetime in ‘The Truth Business’: FIRE Honors the Exceptional Career of Wisconsin Professor Donald Downs
May 6, 2016
Editor’s Note: University of Wisconsin Professor Emeritus Donald Downs is a longtime friend of FIRE. Coincidentally, I worked for him as a teaching assistant when I attended the University of Wisconsin Law School. I was recently invited back to campus on FIRE’s behalf to report on a conference in Downs’ honor. In the frame, in the basketball stadium, two players are reaching for the ball. “That’s Bill Russell. He was my first athletic hero.” Donald Downs—emeritus professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW)—turns once again to the photograph he’s looked at a thousand times, and […]
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Wisconsin: Why Tenure and Shared Governance Matter
June 10, 2015
Tensions are running high in Wisconsin’s system of higher education, as the state’s legislature recently moved closer to etching into reality proposals that could result in $250 million in cuts to the University of Wisconsin System’s budget. This alone is dramatic, but in addition to the potential cuts to the system’s budget, proposals are also in place to weaken protections both for faculty tenure and shared governance. These latest developments have sparked concern that academic freedom in the UW System suddenly faces threats to its long-term health. FIRE shares those concerns. Wisconsin is unique in that provisions concerning faculty tenure […]
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U. of Wisconsin Regents Revise Systemwide Speech Code
November 18, 2013
There is very good news for free speech at Wisconsin’s public universities: The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has revised a system-wide discriminatory harassment policy that previously contained language declared unconstitutional by a federal court. In April of this year, FIRE and two groups of University of Wisconsin (UW) faculty wrote to the Board of Regents urging them to reform Board of Regents Policy 14-6, which at the time was titled “Racist and Discriminatory Conduct.” That policy directed Wisconsin’s public universities to adopt policies against discriminatory conduct and offered sample policy language substantively identical to language struck down by a federal district court […]
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Wisconsin Governor Set to Sign Budget Sunday; No Word on Veto of Unconstitutional Provision
June 27, 2013
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has announced that he plans to sign the state’s budget on Sunday, but has not indicated whether he plans to veto an unconstitutional provision forbidding University of Wisconsin (UW) faculty from collaborating with the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (WCIJ). Students, faculty, journalists, and nonprofit organizations including FIRE have criticized the provision for its infringement on academic freedom. The provision reads: Center for Investigative Journalism. Prohibit the Board of Regents from permitting the Center for Investigative Journalism to occupy any facilities owned or leased by the Board of Regents. In addition, prohibit UW employees from […]
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FIRE, Wisconsin Faculty Ask for Speech Code Reform in UW System
April 24, 2013
Today, FIRE sent a letter to the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System urging reform of a policy that contains language explicitly declared unconstitutional by a federal court. Two groups of UW faculty, led by UW-Madison professor Donald Downs and UW-Stout professor Timothy Shiell, sent their own letters under separate cover echoing FIRE’s concerns. Language from Board of Regents’ Policy 14-6, the “Racist and Other Discriminatory Conduct Policy,” was adopted as a systemwide rule in 1989, but it was quickly ruled unconstitutional in The UWM Post, Inc. v. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, […]
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Speech Code of the Month: University of Wisconsin System
June 4, 2010
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for June 2010: The University of Wisconsin (UW) Board of Regents Policy 14-6, the “Racist and Other Discriminatory Conduct Policy.” It is shocking that the UW Board of Regents and many of its member universities still have policies containing language that was ruled unconstitutional by a federal district court in Wisconsin nearly twenty years ago. Although a successful lawsuit against the UW System invalidated the policy prohibiting “discriminatory comments” including “jokes,” the same prohibitions are in place today. Obviously, the UW System and all of its institutions must immediately purge this language […]
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New Due Process Rules Finally Hit University of Wisconsin
September 10, 2009
As of September 1, revisions to UWS 17, which governs the on- and off-campus behavior of students in the University of Wisconsin System (UWS), have taken effect. As Torch readers may remember, FIRE played an active role in the revision process, particularly when it became known that proposed revisions to the conduct code severely limited the due process rights of UW students. Adam quickly embarked on a speaking tour of the UW system and made FIRE’s case directly to Regents in a public meeting. With the help of FIRE and a host of committed UW students, many of these rights […]
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