UW System president defends recent campus free speech policies in address to conservative groups

University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman defended recent campus policies restricting expressive activity and UW leadership statements during a keynote address Friday. 

Rothman focused on restoring a “quality of dialogue” and boosting free speech across the UW System at the Capitol during an event hosted by Free Speech for Campus, Wisconsin Association of Scholars (WAS) and Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civic Dialogue (WICCD). WAS is a conservative-leaning group founded in 1987 to preserve “Western intellectual heritage.”

In his speech and subsequent panel discussions, Rothman focused on boosting primarily conservative speech through past and current UW System initiatives such as WICCD, a UW System-led initiative that promotes “civil dialogue in a robust marketplace of ideas,” according to their website. 

“We didn`t get to this point overnight,” Rothman said, asserting a free speech crisis across the UW system...