The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is the latest school doing everything they can to shut down and silence any conservative voice on campus. I am an alumnus of this school who luckily had great teachers while acquiring a major in film studies (of all things). Unfortunately, there was nothing but horror stories from my friends taking courses in communication (some of which I took) and sociology. Even worse was trying to find anyone who would refer to anything conservative as something other than “controversial.” This is a university that prides itself on bringing Martin Luther King to campus decades ago when he was a “controversial” speaker. Today, controversy is anything Right of the leftist mafia on campus.
It took me a while to realize how radical the campus was because my film professors (even the far-Left ones) were willing to have civil discussions about politics, which were always pleasant and welcomed. In fact, most of them would avoid politics altogether because it wasn’t a pivotal part of the coursework in the majority of classes. What opened my eyes was the first time I saw how conservative guest-speakers were treated on campus by the students. I’ve long heard about issues of indoctrination in humanities courses, that’s not what I saw here. Instead, what I witnessed at UWM was bigger than a single academic department.
As with any conservative speaker at most universities there is always an attempt from the Left’s foot soldiers to shout down the guest in an attempt to silence their voice. When I was still a student at UWM, I attended a speech by conservative activist David Horowitz which endured consistent and disrespectful disruptions (not to mention that he was subject to an anti-Semitic cartoon being distributed around campus prior to the event). The atmosphere was even worse when former PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat was invited to speak about the threats of radical Islam. Neither of these speakers are “Right-wingers” by any means, but their voice was not tolerated. Because of threats, both events required security which should not have been necessary.
On April 25th the UWM College Republicans invited Karl Rove to speak at their campus. Able to predict how the Left would try to disrupt the event, the College Republicans found a way to thwart leftist attempts to shout down an invited speaker to campus. They were able to distribute tickets themselves and through local conservative radio host Vicki McKenna. This helped fill the front rows with donors or supporters and also helped for security purposes. The reaction from the democrats and allies in the Student Association (SA) on campus was to attack the College Republicans, fighting to cut their funding.
The SA has a newly elected leader who is also the head of a socialist group on campus (it’s pretty easy to fill in the blanks from here). Out of three hundred student groups, the College Republicans is the single conservative voice on campus (about fifteen are politically liberal).
Student organizations at UWM get funding through a grant writing process that is heard by an eight person Senate Appropriations Committee. Organizations can seek grants for “events,” “major events,” “travel,” and “operations.” “Major events” is the only category that is granted over $7500 and only four groups were currently being considered (the College Republicans were one). Before the Appropriations Committee began the reviewing process, the Speaker of the Senate, Secretary and a few committee members held back door meetings to find a loophole that could result in denying grants to the College Republicans for the upcoming year. They decided to redefine the term “granted” as when the committee approves the grant instead of when the money becomes available (which is July 1st, start of the new academic year). Therefore, the College Republicans would not eligible for a grant by this new definition (they are trying to bring Steve Forbes to campus – apparently a “controversial” speaker).
Other committee members were curious about this reimagining of the rules and decided to have Kate Edwards, Chair of the College Republicans as well as SA board member, go to the Chief Justice Meggan DeWitt and get the grant bylaw officially interpreted. Kate got the interpretation and it was in favor of the College Republicans, proving they were eligible for a grant. The result was that the SA executive board fired Kate and is currently trying to oust the Chief Justice as well. Instead of the legal impeachment process, Kate was fired via email and has also been sent physical threats of violence for standing up for herself and the College Republicans.
Predictably, the grant for the College Republicans was denied after the SA got rid of the opposition and threatened to fire anyone else that stood in their way (sounds like union-style thug politics at work, wonder where they learned that??). In addition, there is new legislation called the “April 25th Transparency Act” that will allow the SA to fill up audiences at conservative events with protestors; giving the SA full control of who goes to conservative events (in the event they College Republicans get any funding in the future). As you know, April 25th was the day that Karl Rove came to campus so we can see these cowards aren’t even trying to hide their true motives. The new legislation is still pending and Kate has been appearing on talk radio around Milwaukee and Madison to get this story out (Listen to Kate’s radio appearances here and here).
Saul Alinsky would be proud of the UWM SA for their actions; however, the university should be ashamed. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. College Republican groups across the country are being assaulted, led by the example set by the Mainstream Media who are constantly working to silence and destroy conservatism in the United States. American Universities are supposed to be a place where all voices can be heard, which means Left AND Right for those who don’t understand. Personally, I can’t wait until the alumni association calls me at nine at night again to ask me for a contribution.
The UWM alumni association can be contacted here.
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