SPEECH CODES ARE ALWAYS BAD.

Yesterday, somebody in the chancellor's office at Wisconsin-Milwaukee pronounced anathema on a few socially progressive elements.

UWM has temporarily suspended five student organizations associated with a coalition that posted alarming messages on Instagram. The suspensions come as part of UWM’s ongoing investigation.

A July 19 Instagram story post to the uwm4palicoalition account included intimidating language aimed at Jewish community members and organizations that support Israel. UWM strongly denounced the post, and any form of antisemitism. A subsequent Instagram post by the coalition reaffirmed their original message.

The UWM student organizations that are temporarily suspended include Students for Justice in Palestine, the Muslim Student Association, Students for a Democratic Society, Young Democratic Socialists of America and Un-PAC, all of which identified as part of the coalition in the spring.

Um, no.  Some deanlet in the office of the chancellor committed educational malpractice issuing a Statement of Concern, which includes "Where speech is not protected by the First Amendment, UWM will address it through appropriate processes, which could include student and student organization disciplinary processes. While hateful or intimidating speech is often legally protected, it conflicts with the respect and conduct we ask of each member of our community."

That's bonkers.  I disagree strongly with the form of Justice in Palestine the students advocate, and would find little to agree with among the Students for a Democratic Society or the Democratic Socialists.  But they would benefit more from having their arguments contested by Normals and by Israel's advocates on campus than from putting on the martyrs' robes and ululating about censorship.  As would the Normals and Israel's advocates, that is, if the argument stays above the sewer of "Zionism" and "Islamophobia."  That's apparently asking too much of UWM.

I object to writing anti-Semitism into a harassment code, because I object to harassment codes.  "How much simpler all this would be if higher education respected rules of evidence, criteria for judging the strength of an argument, and bourgeois norms for interaction?"  Unfortunately, those bourgeois norms might have been among the first things to go.

If there is a speech code, the deanlets must apply it consistently.  "A speech code does not forbid bad forms of demeaning, harassing, or hostile conduct while condoning good forms, it prohibits all."

The story continues to develop.

The suspension stems from a post on Instagram by the uwm4palicoalition account on July 19, which said “Any organization or entity that supports Israel is not welcome at UWM” and called Hillel and the Jewish Federation of Milwaukee “extremist organizations.”

The post ended by saying “stay tuned,” and the university said that a subsequent post reaffirmed the message in the first post.

The university initially responded the next day and confirmed it was investigating the post and student organizations involved with the coalition, before announcing the suspensions this afternoon.

“UWM strongly denounces these statements and denounces any form of antisemitism, and we will be actively monitoring campus as a result. Every student, employee and community member must be safe on our campus,” UWM said in their initial statement.

UWM has not announced the length of the suspensions or what the organizations need to do to be reinstated.

WTMJ has reached out to student organizers with the coalition for comment. This story will be updated with their response.

As of this afternoon, neither the student organizers nor the deanlets have responded.  Campus police chief David Salazar, however, has strongly denounced his employers.

Amid two serious investigations — one into antisemitic activity on campus and another into potential misconduct in the police department — UW-Milwaukee Police Chief David Salazar has officially resigned, he announced in an open letter on Thursday.

In the letter, Salazar addresses the March 15th allegations that he violated UW-Milwaukee’s Selected Academic and Administrative Policy 5-1, Discriminatory Conduct and Consensual Relationship Policy under accusations of “surveilling a female police employee.”

Salazar claims he never received questioning or information regarding the allegations, and that he later “provided evidence of gross incompetence and false statements by members of the Police Department.” On June 3, 2024, an investigation concluded that Salazar did not violate campus policy, but he remains frustrated that “evidence of gross incompetence and misconduct” was allegedly not investigated in a timely or meaningful way.

“On July 19, 2024, I was notified that the University was pursuing possible Code of Conduct violations,” Salazar’s letter stated. “Despite my full cooperation, it has become obvious that the investigative process is corrupted, and the outcome is preordained.”

Salazar also expressed his frustrations with investigations into antisemitism on campus. In his letter, Salazar says he found these claims of antisemitic activity on campus true, but his findings were “challenged by Head Legal Counsel, Joely Urdan.”

Should the antisemitism manifest itself in vandalism, terrorist activities or pogroms, those are police matters.  Noisy protests outside the library or the Hillel center are nyekulturny, but not necessarily illegal.  "If the self-styled progressives come around to the libertarian principles under which legislating morality and trimming rights that inhere in individuals on the expediency of the moment, that might be a good thing."  As of this afternoon, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression have not opened a case involving Milwaukee and the Palestinian coalition.  Last fall, the Foundation opened such a case when football school South Florida pronounced anathema on similar student organizations.

On October 24, 2023, the head of Florida’s university system, Ray Rodriguez, sent letters to the state’s public universities directing them to derecognize Students for Justice in Palestine chapters. The letter alleged that a Day of Resistance guide, released by the National SJP, constituted material support for the terrorist organization Hamas and that there needed to be a “crack down on campus demonstrations that delve beyond protected First Amendment speech into harmful support for terrorist groups.” FIRE wrote to USF and four other public universities in Florida on October 25, explaining that communication about campus protests, from a national organization, to its campus chapters does not constitute material support for Hamas’s terrorist activity overseas and that derecognizing SJP chapters unlawfully threatens students’ expressive rights.

The case is listed as "closed" with no further documents, with the Foundation claiming a victory.  Perhaps the prospect of litigation concentrated some minds.

Milwaukee currently have a "yellow" speech code rating.  We'll see what happens.