A bill from Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature would require University of Wisconsin schools to provide out-of-state students with information on how to vote absentee in their home states.

The bill’s authors say the proposal is a way to encourage civic participation from students in communities they know better than their college campuses, but opponents say it’s an effort to remove the largely Democratic student vote from close statewide elections. Students would still be able to decide if they want to vote in Wisconsin or their home states.

“We want to encourage maximum civic participation, but out-of-state students are not often provided the information on how to vote in their state of residence,” the bill’s co-sponsorship states. “This bill would require the Universities of Wisconsin to provide non-resident students information on how to vote absentee in their home state. The goal is to make sure that every UW student has the best information on how to vote before they vote. A 2020 study shows that only 15% of non-Wisconsin resident students stay in Wisconsin after graduating.”

“College students from out of state typically move back to their home state after graduating and do not stay here in Wisconsin,” the memo continues. “Students are typically more involved in their home state where they grew up and have ties to. This bill would simply require the UW System to give students information on voting absentee so they are able to vote in their home state.”

The student vote in Wisconsin is often consequential. In the spring 2023 election, long lines were seen at campus polling locations across the state and the heavy turnout among students was cited as a reason for Janet Protasiewicz’s comfortable margin of victory in last spring’s Supreme Court race.

In Madison, the large student population is one source of the Democratic Party’s strength in Dane County, yet Wisconsin residents make up less than half of the approximately 37,000 undergraduate students.

Rep. Clint Moses (R-Menomonie) told his concern is college students casting deciding votes in local races when they aren’t fully entrenched in the community and don’t pay property taxes.

“Why should a student be voting on these when they are not gonna have any of the impact of it? They’re not paying any of the property taxes in our area,” Moses, one of the bill’s co-authors, said.

Rep. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said that paying property taxes isn’t a requirement to vote and noted that college is often when students become more politically engaged and informed about local issues where they live. He added that the Legislature should be finding ways to keep out-of-state students in Wisconsin after graduation.

“We are constantly talking about workforce challenges and we know that the only way to solve that is gonna be to bring people into our state,” he told WPR. “And bringing them here for college and then spending those four years convincing them that Wisconsin is where they wanna spend their rest of their lives is one of the ways that we can do that.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on and .

A majority of UW System students surveyed about free speech issues on the state’s campuses said they were scared to express their views on certain issues in class, according to the of a survey released Wednesday.

The , which had previously been because of initial pushback from faculty and administrators, was sent to more than 80,000 students in November. Nearly 10,500 students responded, a rate of 12.5%.

The survey asked students their views on self-censorship, viewpoint diversity and freedom of expression on campus. A majority of respondents said they were not at all or only a little likely to listen to opposing viewpoints on topics including COVID-19 vaccines, abortion and transgender issues.

While 54% of respondents said they were extremely or very comfortable sharing their views on climate change in class, 44% said they weren’t comfortable or only a little comfortable sharing their views on transgender issues.

Prior to the survey’s release, faculty and staff had expressed concern that the results would be used by Republican politicians to attack the system. But at a news conference Wednesday at UW Oshkosh, System President Jay Rothman said that people shouldn’t be afraid of what the survey found.

“We can’t be afraid of the truth and what the survey shows us, we want to make sure we get ourselves better,” he said. “It is important that our universities continue to be marketplaces of ideas where divergent opinions can be shared and debated and discussed. I think that, at the end of the day, is a bipartisan issue.”

While students responded that they often feel they aren’t able to express their viewpoints in class, nearly 60% of respondents said they feel instructors encourage a wide range of viewpoints during discussions.

At the news conference, Rothman said administrators need to work on making sure students feel they can voice their opinions.

“We have to acknowledge that some students at our universities simply don’t feel comfortable sharing their views in class or elsewhere on campus,” he said. “We need to create a culture that more openly values free expression — and make sure students understand their rights under the First Amendment.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on and .

The University of Wisconsin System sent a survey to students on Monday looking for their feelings about the state of free speech on the system’s campuses across the state.

The survey had previously been planned for May, but objections from chancellors, including by UW-Whitewater Chancellor James Henderson, who when he resigned from his post, caused it to be delayed.

The 29-page was sent to a random sample of students at each of the System’s 13 universities with the hope of getting at least 500 responses from each campus. The survey asks students about their views on abortion, police misconduct and academic freedom, among other topics. The multiple choice questions also ask students how they feel about administrative responses to speech on campus and if they feel like an instructor has ever expressed ideological views in class.

UW-Madison student MGR Govindarajan, the Legislative Affairs Chair for student government group Associated Students of Madison, told he’s worried about the responses being weaponized by Republicans.

“We shouldn’t be afraid of the results, like the president said,” Govindarajan said. “However, there is a very real possibility that the results will be manipulated. That is something that students in student government are preparing for and something that we know will have a negative impact on students directly.”

UW System President Jay Rothman said the survey is just an attempt to get a sense of campus climates.

“The First Amendment is a bedrock principle of American democracy, and this survey will help us understand what students know and think about free speech rights and responsibilities,” Rothman said in a . “At the same time, we have an obligation to promote respectful dialogue – inside the classroom, around residence halls, and on the campus square. What better place than a university to foster the vigorous, considerate exchange of ideas and opinions?”

The survey is set to be conducted by the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service at UW-Stevens Point and is funded by UW-Stout’s Menard Center for Public Policy and Service, which was started by a donation from the conservative Charles Koch Foundation and bears the name of John Menard, a prominent Republican donor.

When the survey was initially announced this spring by the UW System’s interim President Michael Falbo, a political controversy sprung up as faculty and staff on campus worried that Republican lawmakers — who are frequently hostile to the UW System — would use the responses to attack their work.

After chancellors initially expressed concerns about the survey, Falbo said the System would not be participating but some Republican legislators intervened in an attempt to get it pushed through. Republicans have long accused university faculty and administrators of stifling conservative speech on campuses.

Falbo relented, which is what caused Henderson’s resignation.

“First Amendment rights are vital to the UW-Whitewater community, and they have demonstrated that they are able to assure that a variety of voices are heard on campus in a respectful way, so we didn’t view this as crucial to serving our students,” he told the Wisconsin State Journal in May. “We should be able to determine the prioritization of surveys administered on our campuses.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on and .