MADISON, Wis. — Hundreds of teachers and students gathered at Library Mall on Thursday to rally for Wisconsin higher education.
“Kill the cuts, tax the rich, fund higher education,” said State Representative Francesca Hong while speaking at the rally.
Zain Ashraf is a junior studying psychology and political science at UW-Madison.
He said the changes that are being made to higher education are leaving him and his friends worried about the future.
“There is a bit of a tense atmosphere around and when you run an institute of higher learning, it is already a stressful environment with assignments and finals and that is not great,” said Ashraf.
Ashraf and his friend Walter Vandyke are looking at graduate schools to attend. They said the current state of higher education is making that search difficult.
“A lot of programs are either shutting down are tightening up their application pools. I am looking towards Europe when I go,” said Vandyke.
During State Representative Francesca Hong’s speech, she called on teachers, students and politicians to hold UW-Madison accountable for its actions.
“Communicating to us exactly what they are doing to stand up for every single one of their community members regardless of documentation, regardless of their status, regardless of how long they have been here,” said Hong.
Rally organizers had a list of demands, including that the university work directly with members of teachers’ unions when making decisions that will impact their lives.
Rally organizers also ask that UW-Madison join the Big 10 Mutual Defense Compact and promise that university and campus police will continue its policy of not providing information for or working with ICE.
In a response to the rally in the statement sent to Spectrum News, UW-Madison said:
“Overall, UW-Madison continues to monitor changes at the federal level while advocating for the value of world-class teaching, research and outreach. We’re in regular contact with our elected leaders, the Universities of Wisconsin, Big Ten peers and national associations such as AAU and APLU.“
Ashraf said he is concerned about his own future as a student.
“Whether purely based on the educational offerings that the school has or just the environment, it is certainly affecting it and just that uncertainty of what is going to happen next,” said Ashraf.
For updates on how federal policies are affecting UW-Madison, you can follow this link.
