Student Union
Wisconsin Students Clash Over Trump
Political, racial and gender tensions between students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have erupted over freedom of speech and drawn deep battle lines.
Senior Jasmine Kiah said she felt "unsafe" as a black woman because of posters in the campus Student Activity Center (SAC) put up by the GOP Badgers — also called the College Republicans — who support President Donald Trump.
"The Student Activity Center is a place where all students should feel safe. For black people and other people of color, we do not feel welcome," Kiah told VOA. "Trump signs are a representation of hate."
Taped up posters
Kiah protested by taping anti-Trump posters on a glass wall of the College Republicans’ office that faces into the SAC. While she was counterprotesting the Trump display, she played an anti-Trump protest song by the late community activist and rapper Nipsey Hussle on her cellphone.
GOP student members said they felt unsafe and called university police, as reported by the Badger-Herald, an independent student newspaper. Campus police arrived, asked Kiah to leave and escorted her from the building.
The University of Wisconsin released a statement saying that, according to campus policy, only preapproved signs by the Student Activities Office can be displayed in public spaces on campus. Also, posters are not allowed on glass walls, the policy states.
The College Republicans' posters were taped to the inside of the glass wall, and it was not clear how university officials were evaluating their placement.
The incident escalated when the GOP Badgers posted a video on Twitter of Kiah taping signs on the outside of their office window that said, "Donald Trump is … racist … sexist … bigot … homophobic … ." The video elicited more than 10,500 reactions, with both sides receiving support and criticism.
"Another example of total intolerance from the left in an environment that is supposed to welcome a marketplace of ideas," the GOP Badgers tweeted. They called Kiah an "intolerant student in complete hysteria" whose protest "targets" the UW-Madison College Republicans’ student office.
Erin Perrine, deputy communications director for the president's re-election campaign, tweeted that the video was "a disgusting display by the 'tolerant left.' " ... Good thing those signs won't stop the @GOPBadgers! #LeadRight!"
Alex Walker, campaign director for Republican U.S. Representative Bryan Steil, in a tweet called the video "the intolerance of the left on display." Conservative Charlie Hoffman called Kiah's protest "shameful," "childish" and "ridiculous."
State senator's letter
Wisconsin state Senator David Craig wrote the university on behalf of the College Republicans, asking the school to investigate the matter.
"There seems to be a growing animosity on that campus towards conservative thought and conservative expression while the opposing view is shielded, protected, supported and encouraged," he wrote to university Chancellor Rebecca Blank. "There is no shortage of leftist ideology permeating from campus organizations." The GOP Badgers followed up with a tweet.
Support for Kiah defended her freedom of speech and her right to protest.
"To some white people, a POC's [person of color’s] default setting is aggressive/scary/violent. So when a POC is doing something that white person does not understand, like, or approve of ... HYSTERIA!" tweeted user Scout.
"The only overreacting ... that I see here is from the GOP Badgers," tweeted user Micah Faulds.
UW junior Nile Lansana, who works at the Student Activity Center, said he witnessed the incident.
"Jasmine was calm, respectful and resolute in her protest. ‘Intolerant' and ‘in complete hysteria' are mischaracterizations of the incident," Lansana wrote to VOA. "All she had was music, tape and paper. There was also an entire wall of glass between them, and Jasmine never made any attempt to speak to or approach them."
Dean of Students Christina Olstad responded to the senator's letter, saying the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards was reviewing the incident.
Commentator sees 'snowflakes'
Political commentator Charlie Sykes, who has hosted a conservative radio show and is originally from Wisconsin, responded to the College Republicans.
"I read all the stories, and I shared the news with people who are also in the university world, and we thought you guys came off like snowflakes," the Badger-Herald reported. “Snowflake” is typically used as an insult by conservatives describing liberals whom they deem weak.
"It looked like to me that you were assaulted by someone with a piece of paper and words," Sykes said.
"We understand that not everyone on campus agrees with us, however, there are over 45,000 students on our campus, which means that there are 45,000 different opinions and the goal should not be that all students agree, but that we all respect one another's opinions and enjoy the beautiful UW-Madison campus together as one student body," Ryan Christens, UW junior and College Republicans chairman, wrote to VOA.
Kiah said she felt threatened by the backlash from conservative critics at her university, on social media and from the government.
"I was not destroying anything. I was peacefully protesting," Kiah said. "If a white student had done this, it would not have gone this far."
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Australian, Chinese university chiefs meet in Adelaide
Australian university leaders held talks Wednesday with their Chinese counterparts over the Canberra government’s plans to cut the number of international students. Australia has said the reductions will ease the stress on housing and reduce immigration.
Representatives from the Group of Eight Universities, which represents large research-intensive institutions in Australia, met Wednesday in Adelaide with leaders from the China Education Association for International Exchange.
The Chinese delegation included senior officials from 22 leading research-intensive universities in China.
In a joint statement, the two groups said that “our research and education links not only deliver enormous economic and social benefits for both countries, but also foster enduring people-to-people ties.”
The talks focused on “constructive dialogue focused on challenges and opportunities around university research in a fast-evolving, globalized world.”
One major challenge is Australia’s plans to cap the number of international students it allows into the country to relieve pressure on housing and rental accommodation in the major cities. It is part of a broader effort to reduce immigration.
In 2023, official data showed that 787,000 international students studied in Australia, exceeding levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the tertiary sector says plans to shut out some foreign students would cost the economy billions of dollars.
Vicki Thompson is the chief executive of the Group of Eight Universities. She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Wednesday that it is unclear how far international student numbers would be cut.
“At the moment there is a lot of unknowns about what this will actually mean. We are in very good discussions with government, though. They certainly understand the impact that our international education sector has on tourism, on the economy. So, you know, they do not want to bust it either. It is just how can we come to, I guess, a compromise position where, you know, we do not damage one of our most successful export markets,” she said.
Most overseas students in Australia come from China, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Vietnam, according to government data.
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Taliban push for normalizing male-only higher education
In coming weeks, tens of thousands of students in Afghanistan are set to sit for university entrance examinations.
Notably absent from the list of candidates will be females.
The upcoming exams are expected to determine the admission of about 70,000 students to public academic and professional institutions this year.
Last week, when officials from the Taliban's Ministry of Higher Education unveiled the specifics of the upcoming exams, they conspicuously omitted any mention of the exclusion of female students from university admissions.
Despite facing widespread domestic and international criticism for their prohibition of women from educational and professional opportunities, the Taliban have persisted in enforcing discriminatory gender policies.
“The exclusion of women from higher education significantly limits the country's economic potential, as half the population is unable to contribute effectively to the workforce,” David Roof, a professor of educational studies at Ball State University, wrote to VOA.
In December 2022, the Taliban suspended nearly 100,000 female students enrolled in both public and private universities across Afghanistan.
With the nation already grappling with some of the most dire female literacy rates globally, Afghanistan has failed to produce any female professionals over the past two years.
According to aid agencies, the absence of female medical professionals, compounded by other restrictions, has contributed to the deaths of thousands of young mothers in Afghanistan.
The United Nations reports that over 2.5 million Afghan school-age girls are deprived of education.
“The interruption in education can result in a generational setback, where entire cohorts of women remain uneducated and unqualified for professional roles,” Roof said.
'Hermit kingdom'
The elusive supreme leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, purportedly responsible for the ban on women's education and employment, has never publicly clarified his directive.
Initially, when secondary schools were shuttered for girls in March 2022, Taliban officials said the action was "temporary," insisting that the Islamist leadership did not fundamentally oppose women's education.
However, more than two years later, Taliban officials have provided no rationale for the continued absence of girls from classrooms.
“They have normalized gender-apartheid,” said an Afghan women’s rights activist who did not want to be named in this article, fearing the Taliban’s persecution.
“This is a new norm in Afghanistan, however insane and destructive it may look in the rest of the world,” she added.
In January 2022, the U.S. Department of State appointed Rina Amiri as the special envoy for Afghan women, aiming to garner international backing for Afghan women's rights.
Amiri has actively engaged with Muslim leaders, emphasizing the importance of women's rights in Islam, in hopes of influencing Taliban leaders.
Despite these efforts, there has been no indication from Taliban leaders of any intention to abandon their discriminatory policies against women. “There is no indication this will subside,” Amiri told a Congressional hearing in January.
Senior U.S. officials have also warned the Taliban that there will be no normalization in their relations with the international community unless they allow women to return to work and education.
Thus far, the Taliban’s response has been that they value depriving women of basic human rights more than having normal relations with the rest of the world.
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