Republican Legislator Holding Hearings on "Intellectual Diversity" on UW-System Campuses

Thursday, March 30th, 2023 -- 11:00 AM

(By Rich Kremer, Wisconsin Public Radio) A Republican legislator who has accused colleges of "indoctrinating students" will hold hearings next month on whether a lack of what he calls "intellectual diversity" at UW System campuses is hurting the quality of education.

According to Rich Kremer with Wisconsin Public the Radio, the push follows a campus free speech survey that found some conservative students reported self-censoring views in class.

During a press conference Tuesday, state Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, said the Assembly's Colleges and Universities Committee will hold two hearings in April to explore the issue. The first hearing on April 6 will be held in Madison and will feature testimony from business leaders.

"We will look at how the lack of intellectual diversity affects graduates and employers in the business world," Murphy said. He said the UW System has three constituent groups: students, taxpayers and businesses.

While Murphy didn't define what intellectual diversity means, he's been critical of how UW System campuses respond to conservative speakers. In October, nationally known conservative Matt Walsh spoke at UW-Madison during his "What is a Woman" tour, which is highly critical of policies supporting transgender individuals and gender-reassignment surgeries.

Around 100 students protested the event outside the campus's student union, but Walsh's speech wasn't disrupted.  A January press release from Murphy named a graduate student who was accused of ripping down flyers promoting the event and claimed it was "another example of the University indoctrinating students, not educating them."

During the Tuesday press conference, Murphy, who has supported bills to punish universities for violating free speech, was asked whether he might introduce legislation governing intellectual diversity on campus. "I have no preconceived notions of where that's going right now," Murphy said. "We'll wait and see what the experts are telling us and then go from there."

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.