UW System to send free speech survey to students

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin System officials are preparing to send a survey to students seeking their thoughts on free speech rights.

System officials plan to email the survey to undergraduates at all 13 public universities on Thursday. Questions will include what they know about the First Amendment; how much they value free speech; whether they see problems with a lack of diverse viewpoints; whether they censor themselves; and whether they’ve ever been sanctioned or punished for exercising their free speech rights.

The survey is designed to satisfy a requirement in regent policies that system officials report annually on institutions’ efforts to uphold academic freedom and freedom of expression. Students will have until May 6 to complete it.

The survey is funded by UW-Stout's Menard Center for Public Policy and Service.

Republican legislators have been pushing UW officials to get tougher on students who disrupt conservative speakers and presentations. Assembly Republicans introduced a bill in December that would have prohibited institutions from restricting when and where speech can take place and punishing someone based on their viewpoints. Violators would have lost state grants and been required to tell student applicants they had been sanctioned.

The bill never got a floor vote before the two-year legislative session ended last month.