I was disappointed to see that the UW System has delayed a survey on students' perception of free speech and freedom of expression on UW System campuses.

The survey, meant to be released this week, aimed to understand the troubling trend of suppressed free speech on college campuses throughout our state. Due to this delay, the survey will now be released this fall.
The survey will attempt to answer the following questions:

• What do students know about First Amendment free speech rights?
• How much do they value these rights?
• How much do students value viewpoint diversity?
• Do they perceive problems in viewpoint diversity at their campus?
• Do students self-censor? If so, why do they self-censor?
• Have students witnessed or experienced formal sanctions or punishment for constitutionally protected expression?
• To what extent do student perceptions vary with demographic factors such as their political party affiliation, gender, and race/ethnicity?

Collecting the data in this survey, which was composed by a team of free speech experts and survey design experts, will help UW System and the state craft future policy decisions to ensure free speech remains on all college campuses in Wisconsin.

See my statement on the delay of the Student Perceptions of Campus Free Speech Survey.