UW delays free speech survey after interim chancellor quit

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A University of Wisconsin-Stout professor has decided to delay sending a survey to UW System undergraduates asking about their thoughts on free speech after an interim chancellor resigned over the project.

UW-Stout philosophy professor Timothy Shiell told Interim System President Michael Falbo in an email Wednesday that “given current circumstances,” he must delay sending out the survey until fall. He said the extra time will help answer an “avalanche” of questions about it.

Shiell runs the Menard Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation at Stout. The center began in 2017 with a donation from the conservative Charles Koch Foundation. It was renamed the Menard Center after the Menards family, which founded the Menards store chain, donated $2.26 million to the center in 2019. The family is a major Republican donor.

The GOP has been pushing campuses for several years to crack down on students and faculty whom they say punish and disrupt those who express conservative viewpoints.

The center planned to send the survey to undergraduates systemwide on Thursday. But UW-Whitewater Interim Chancellor Jim Henderson resigned on Monday, saying chancellors raised concerns about the survey. He said he was worried students were tired of questionnaires and that a free speech survey wasn’t needed at UW-Whitewater because students are exposed to a variety of voices.

Henderson said he was upset with Falbo because he initially wasn’t going to allow the survey but Falbo changed his mind because he was worried that Republican legislators would accuse campus leaders of trying to stamp out conservative views.

Falbo told the Wisconsin State Journal his stance on the survey changed last week after Shiell told him that the chancellors’ concerns were based on incomplete information. Shiell said that the university board overseeing research involving humans had approved the survey and the workload for schools would be limited to sending out emails.