School administrators at the University of Wisconsin-Superior recently held a meeting with students upset over a planned campus speech by Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, taking questions and offering advice on protesting.
Walsh is scheduled to speak at the university on Wednesday. Students at the meeting pushed administrators to stop Walsh from speaking on campus and accused university administrators of wanting “hatred” by allowing the event, sponsored by Young America’s Foundation (YAF), to take place. Administrators also advised students on how to protest the event and what to do in case of violence.
“As a campus … we’re known for, like, inclusion and diversity and, like, all those different kinds of things, and this guy is promoting hate speech specifically about those kinds of things. Why can’t you just tell this doesn’t follow what our university stands by?” one student asked, pushing administrators to bar the speech from campus. The university administrators declined the request, according to YAF.
NEW: Footage obtained exclusively by YAF shows administrators at a Wisconsin university hosting a planning session for students to protest tomorrow's @MattWalshBlog event.
Students tried to get administrators to move the event off-campus, but were denied. pic.twitter.com/xZlMzlINkj
— YAF (@yaf) April 26, 2022
In another part of the meeting, a student posed a hypothetical in which “counter-protesters” attempted to get violent with protesters against Walsh.
“How would the protesters, hypothetically, I don’t know, address counter-protesters? Like, if we’re sitting there, like, peacefully or whatever, that there are other people who want to engage in violence? How should we as the civil protesters interact with that?” the student asked.
“Now, I think the best interaction you could have is not to interact with that,” answered a man, reportedly a university administrator. He went on to say that violent incidents should be reported to campus police.
“Keeping to the root cause of why you’re protesting and what you’re doing and the purpose behind it is to keep the core values that you’ve established,” he said.
A UW-Superior administrator is seen asking “what questions” students have about protesting the event.
One student declares her fear for violence by conservatives attending the event, despite no evidence of any such claims. pic.twitter.com/IoTQx5pAk6
— YAF (@yaf) April 26, 2022
Another presumed administrator, a woman, told the assembled students that “I think the power that you all have is within yourselves.”
“As a protesting group, if there begins to be any threats towards you, I would suggest all of you sit down. That will cause a scene. That will help Joe and his officers know something is happening,” she said. “So, if somebody is being threatened, sit down and call it out.”
“I think the power that you all have is within yourselves.”
One administrator encourages protestors to “sit down” if there are threats against them, to draw a scene and cause police to come and assist. pic.twitter.com/H3lc0NFeB7
— YAF (@yaf) April 26, 2022
In another clip, one student claims that the controversy over Walsh’s speech has been “one of the most exhausting experiences” of his life and threatened to leave the school.
“This has become one of the most exhausting experiences of my entire life to the point where I have decided that I would rather pay thousands of dollars to go to school anywhere else,” the student said. “It is exhausting with racism, homophobia, transphobia – and nobody cares. And you guys can say that you care, and I know that genuinely you want to block hatred toward the students here. But these actions reflect that you want hatred.”
“This has become one of the most exhausting experiences of my entire life,” one student says about @MattWalshBlog coming to campus.
“These actions reflect that you want hatred,” he told an administrator for allowing Walsh to speak. pic.twitter.com/HaPA6O8ZSw
— YAF (@yaf) April 26, 2022
The University of Wisconsin-Superior did not immediately return The Daily Wire’s request for comment.