Madison preps for Murray visit
Protesters plan to disrupt speech
Libertarian provocateur Charles Murray is set to speak Wednesday night at a private club in Madison, weeks after protesters violently disrupted his lecture at Middlebury College and Republican lawmakers began efforts to force free speech rights protections on college campuses, including in Wisconsin.
While the Madison Club is private, there’s a large, outdoor public space along the building that leads to Monona Terrace. A Facebook page for a “Noise Demo to Resist Charles Murray” invites protesters to bring drums, pots and pans, and whistles to disrupt “cocktails, dinner, and a lecture about how rich white people (especially men) are intellectually, culturally, and morally superior to everyone.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty from theCenter for the Study of Liberal Democracy invited Murray to
the dinner before things got out of hand at Middlebury in March. Murray, a political scientist and conservative author, has spoken at Notre Dame and two universities in New York since Middlebury, and protests at those campuses have not interfered with his lectures.
Murray has drawn protests for decades over his views on race, inequality, politics and society. In the 1990s, he coauthored “The Bell Curve,” which argues intelligence is determined by factors like class, upbringing and race. Campus cultures have shifted in more recent years, though, with protesters on liberal arts campuses shutting down right-wing provocateurs like Murray to the point where conservatives claim free expression no longer is equal and racial tensions are escalating because of it.
Lawmakers in California, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin in recent weeks have introduced legislation to enforce free expression without fear of harm or intimidation. The New York Times describes the movement as “a rapidly escalating effort by conservatives to fight liberals on what was once the left’s moral high ground over free speech on campus.”
Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders recently took the unusual step of scolding anyone who would shut out conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who canceled an appearance at the University of California Berkeley last month for fear of violence.
Last week in Wisconsin, state Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) circulated a bill that would allow students to be expelled for disrupting campus speakers, regardless of whether the speakers’ views could be considered offensive.
On Monday, Rep. Bob Gannon (R-West Bend) posted an open letter to the UW System Board of Regents, recommending that salary and compensation of university leaders be tied to their enforcement of an “open and safe environment.”
“Passing laws in order to force common sense on our campuses seems unnecessary,” the Republican lawmaker wrote.
UW-Madison political science emeritus professor Donald Downs said Tuesday that legislation such as Kremer’s bill is concerning because lawmakers “are telling the university how it should punish people.”
“I think that may be unprecedented, but we have to get our own house in order,” said Downs, adding: “I personally think this is going to eventually get worked out because it’s a situation that cannot be sustained without doing damage to higher education.”
Shifting campus culture to protect free speech for all viewpoints will take constructive leadership at universities, Downs said. “It’s leaders saying the right things and backing up the right things with appropriate sanctions. It also requires education ... so people aren’t shocked that someone ‘can say that.’ “Speech you don’t like is protected,” Downs said. “If you direct and incite unlawful action, that crosses the line, including inciting people to disrupt. Just making a speech in public is not an incitement.”
UW-Madison leaders are working on student conduct policy that would establish rules against disrupting free speech and sanctions for violating those rules, Downs said. “You have to punish people” to avoid undermining the fundamental principles of higher education institutions, he said. Expulsion could go too far for a first offense, though, he said.
Middlebury College in Vermont last week announced more than 30 students had accepted discipline for disrupting Murray’s talk. A violent protest there left a professor injured. Murray later that day gave a version of his talk via livestream.
The Madison Police Department is aware of planned protests outside the Madison Club on Wednesday night. The department monitors social media and talks with protest organizers to discuss their plans, help them safely protest, and let them know where the line is drawn between lawful and unlawful activities, spokesman Joel DeSpain said.
“Our people are pretty good at using their discretion, allowing them to protest and letting them know what time period is OK.”
A “noise” protest that prevents a speaker’s lecture from being heard inside a private club would constitute unlawful activity, DeSpain said.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank issued a cautionary statement Monday, saying she supports both Murray’s right to speak and the right of those who disagree with him to share their views. “I would expect that we at UW can have this exchange in a respectful way,” the statement said.
“Let me be clear that here at UW-Madison we are committed to creating a community where every person feels welcomed, valued and able to succeed,” the chancellor said. “Each day, our students prove that persons of all backgrounds, including those that have historically been excluded from higher education, can and do succeed at the very highest levels of academic rigor.”
Murray has been an invited guest of the university in the past, “and we will extend to him the same courtesy every guest to our campus deserves,” Blank said.
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin — a former student activist and Vietnam War-era protester — has been closely following the legislative conversation and debates on campuses over free speech. While he respects the passion of those speaking out against positions they find offensive, he takes the long view of free speech protections.
“It’s very important we in Wisconsin maintain our culture of recognizing the First Amendment and that people with distasteful and horrendous ideas have the right to speak,” Soglin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“I also believe a modest amount of heckling is part of free speech,” he said. “If it prevents the speaker from expressing views, then it’s gone too far. But if it’s calling them out and occasionally interrupting, it’s fine.”