State Panel Endorses Punishments For UW Speaker Disruptions

5/31/17 – While critics fear political witch hunts, a state panel has endorsed a bill to punish students who disrupt speakers on U-W campuses. The Assembly Colleges Committee sent the measure to the full house on an 8-6 party line vote Tuesday. Republicans said it would assure that all types of speech would not be shouted down, especially conservative views in liberal settings — while Democrats said it would result in students filing complaints against people they disagree with, and having politicians set policies that the Board of Regents are supposed to set. The bill would order the Regents to create a policy that punishes students for “violent and other disorderly conduct” that disrupts the free expression of others — and that’s more detailed than what Republican Jesse Kremer of Kewaskum originally proposed. The panel also ordered mandatory expulsions for those violating the policy three times.