MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor’s response to a student trying to set up a pro-white group on campus further alienates minorities as they struggle for a better campus experience, student leaders said Friday.
The student’s effort to set up a campus chapter of the American Freedom Party — whose platform includes “prioritizing white supremacy values,” according to its Facebook page — has raised questions about how the university should respond and comes as the white nationalist movement as a whole has been emboldened by Donald Trump’s presidency.
Student government representatives urged Chancellor Rebecca Blank in a letter to denounce the AFP as racist. They said her statement Thursday saying that expressing objectionable viewpoints isn’t illegal was weak.
“Chancellor Blank’s statement is a testament to how administrators outwardly show a lack of verbal and systemic support for students of color or minority identities,” the letter from Associated Students of Madison Chair Carmen Goséy, ASM Representative Brooke Evans and Student Activity Center Governing Board Chair Katrina Morrison said.
Blank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Adding to the students’ concerns is that the man who’s recruiting for the AFP chapter, Daniel Dropik, served almost five years in federal prison for setting fires at two predominantly black churches. Dropik, 33, says frustration over the university’s efforts to improve the experiences of minority students led him to start a local AFP chapter.
Blank said in her statement that the university is monitoring the group for threats but that expressing hateful viewpoints is legal and within campus policies. She added that she would ask regents to revisit the University of Wisconsin System’s policy of not considering criminal records in the admission process.
