Walker’s Budget Requires UW System To Protect Controversial Speakers On Campuses

A piece of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget is taking on student protests of controversial speakers, and some students aren’t happy about it.

The budget provision would bar members of University of Wisconsin System from preventing or interfering with speakers some find offensive.

The measure comes as controversial speakers at college campuses across the country have made national news after being prevented from speaking by protesters. Earlier this month, a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, a conservative editor for Breitbart News, was canceled at the University of California, Berkeley after violent protests erupted.

Jacob Schimmel, president of the student association at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, said the proposal seems to be “trying to crack down on … students’ rights of freedom of assembly.”

Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director at the first amendment advocacy group FIRE, said students have a right to protest, but they don’t have a right to stop another person’s speech.

“We don’t live in a world where it’s free speech for me but not for thee,” Cohn said.

UW-Madison constitutional law professor Howard Schweber said he has no objections to Walker’s proposal.

Schweber said school administrators have an obligation to ensure protests are allowed, but those protests are not allowed to prevent the speaker from being heard in turn.