Wisconsin legislators seek to punish student protesters at public universities
On Tuesday, the Wisconsin State Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities approved a bill making it possible for administrators at the University of Wisconsin to suspend and expel students engaged in protests that result in the disruption of speaking events and lectures at any of the state’s UW campuses.
The bill, which is now set to move to the state Senate, represents a draconian assault on the constitutionally protected right of free speech and the freedom to assemble and is aimed at shutting down popular opposition to the right-wing policies being pursued by the Trump administration.
The “Campus Free Speech Act” dictates that a student “who engages in violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, obscene, unreasonably loud, or other disorderly conduct that interferes with the free expression of others” will be punished, first through a “disciplinary hearing,” then through suspension for an entire semester and, finally, expulsion. To trigger such proceedings, the university merely needs to receive complaints about an individual from at least two sources.
The bill is part of a law-and-order response by public officials to a series of developments in which students have booed, protested or shouted down right-wing speakers scheduled to speak at officially sanctioned college events across the US.
Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/06/03/free-j03.html
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