5-1-19 uw-oshkosh chancellor goes “between the lines”

The U-W Oshkosh Chancellor says a student who is the target of a police investigation for a racist sign in an off-campus home is the same student that made a racist snapchat post in March during student government elections.    University officials are investigating a sign in an off-campus home that said liberals, Jews, Muslims, gays and Hmong people aren’t wanted.  A twitter user who posted that photo posted another of a swastika hanging on a wall during a party at the house.  On AM 1170’s Between the Lines program, Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said a student  who lives at the house made a snapchat post in March that shows two white UWO students running for election and reads   “vote for these guys, unless you want a  lesbian or Hmong to win.  He says that’s the same student under investigation for the latest incident.  “When people are targeted based upon their personal identity its absolutely wrong,”  Leavitt said.  “We don’t tolerate this at UW-Oshkosh, we shouldn’t tolerate it anywhere else in our society.”  Leavitt says the students could only be kicked out of school if they were found to be in significant violation of a school policy or a law.  He says the challenge is balancing the rights of an individual to have an education free of this kind of hate speech, while protecting people’s right to free speech.   “In this country hate speech is considered free speech which means we cannot necessarily act on these students directly related to the content of the speech unless it were to constitute a a threat or harrassment.  That’s something that the police are definately looking at in their investigation.”