The legislation stems from a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which found that one-in-three college students believe violence is an acceptable response to speech they don’t like or agree with.
“When more than one out of every three students at UW–Madison believes violence is an acceptable way to suppress speech, it’s clear we have a serious civility problem on campus. AB 501 simply puts the UW’s own free speech policy into law and ensures it is enforced. We cannot allow violence or intimidation to become a normalized substitute for free debate,” the organization said in a statement.
