Badger Backlash

Wisconsin-based author/scholar/radio talker Charles Sykes reports that even at the liberal-left bastion known as the University of Wisconsin, students are refusing to be held hostage by the pc zealots.

One major breakthrough: conservative students and their moderate allies now hold a voting majority in the Student Senate.

Of course, hurdles still exist. Last year when conservative groups sponsored a visit by former terrorist
Walid Shoebat to speak on “Why I Left Jihad,” the Muslim Student Association demanded that the event be cancelled.

The administration eventually gave a green light to the event, but slapped a $2500 “security fee” on the sponsoring groups.

Not so fast, said the students. This sounds a lot like muzzling free speech to us.

Marquette University Law Professor Rick Esenberg agreed. He wrote that “the administration’s decision to charge conservatives an excessive fee was unconstitutional.”

While he acknowledged that a public university “may impose reasonable time, place and manner regulations, it does not get to engage in viewpoint discrimination… adding that “it can’t set fees based upon an assessment of the speaker’s views and the likely reaction to it.”

The university waived the fee.

Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.

Deborah Lambert