Question the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s diversity and inclusion initiative and this happens to you

image via DanielDropik

A student’s request to hang flyers that question the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s diversity and inclusion initiative have been denied one after another because apparently diverse ideas aren’t actually the goal of this institute of “higher” learning.  Believe me.  I know what this is like after my treatment by the University of New Haven.

Daniel Dropik told The College Fix that he couldn’t get away from the UWM flyers plastered all over campus and scrolling across TV screens that say: “Hate and bias is unacceptable at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Witnessed or experienced a bias incident? … Report hate and bias incidents to…”

So, Dropik decided to test the administration on its ideologies and see just how inclusive they really are. He presented a tongue-in-cheek flyer through the proper channels, but the speech police denied permission to post because they believed his flyer was “political in nature” even though no politics are mentioned. Here is the text from his flyer:

Is “Hate and Bias” Really Unacceptable? WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED AN ORWELLIAN SPEECH POLICING PROGRAM?

The UW Board of Regents affirms* it’s commitment to academic freedom and ideological nonpartisanship. This includes the right to refute and inquire the veracity of the University’s classification of “hate/bias” activities, and related policies.

Additionally, it’s your right to openly refute and inquire the scholarly and social merit of Microaggressions, White [Privilege], Safe-spaces, and other theories and practices comprising contemporary “social justice” scholarship.

* University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents’ 2015 Statement Reiterating the Board’s Commitment to Academic Freedom and Affirming its Commitment to Freedom of Expression

Report Criticism of the UW Hate/Bias Program to …

(This publication is in no way affiliated with UW-Madison or The UW Board of Regents.)

“I anticipated that I would encounter resistance to posting the flyer,” Dropik admitted. “I didn’t want to get fined, so I always went out of my way to get explicit permission in accordance with the rules. My flyer was never taken down because I never succeeded in getting permission to post it.”

Dropik said it’s important to the dialogue on campus for students to “disagree about what should be classified as hate and bias” but UWM is going out of its way to promote group-think. It launched a program called “Our Wisconsin” and according to The Fix, it “aims to crack down on offensive words.” Diversity Officer Patrick Sims helped pen the program in hopes to move UWM away from being a “Jim Crow” institution as he once described the school. Sims and others want the program to prevent things like a few swastikas from appearing around campus and stop people shouting Indian war cries. However, as The Fix notes, the many incidents of anti-white and anti-cop graffiti that have been spray painted on buildings and supported by the university, aren’t addressed at all.

Worse yet, Dropik and some of his friends are concerned about how UWM is collecting information about incidents of bias with its encouragement of students to anonymously report what they’ve seen or heard as if they are the tattle-tale squad for free speech. Meanwhile, the university itself practices bias when it sets up separate meetings for blacks and whites when discussing Black LIES Matter.

Dropik said he’s further concerned because this Orwellian environment is causing conservative and libertarian students to self-censor in fear they might be perceived as racist and thus turned in.

“If UW-Madison is truly concerned about ‘diversity,’” Dropik said, “then why does it value racial diversity more heavily than intellectual diversity? … The dominant practices on campus, influenced by ‘social justice’ theories, do the opposite of liberating free expression for all. They stifle communication, and exacerbate racial tensions by bolstering racial double standards and alarmingly widening the criteria of racial taboo.”

“It’s sad. I used to be proud of my college,” he added.

I would suspect that most people in the country agrees with Dropik and are sad, too, to see how far universities have fallen from being bastions of free thought and expression. Welcome to 1984.