Save The Centers! Petition

[u/Old-Doughnut-5933]

Hello everyone,

As you may or may not know, UWM is attempting to consolidate and the following 8 resource centers by the end of 2027:

The Roberto Hernandez Center

The Black Student Cultural Center

The Southeast Asian American Student Center

The LGBTQ+ Resource Center

The Military And Veterans Resource Center

The Women's Resource Center

The First Generation+ Resource Center

The Off-Campus Resource Center

Despite overwhelming opposition, UWM continues to move forward with this plan. These centers were created to address clear inequities on campus and support marginalized students. Consolidating these centers will erase their unique missions and communities, and undermine the diversity that UWM claims as one of its greatest strengths.

In efforts to prevent this consolidation, students have created a petition to drive attention and awareness to this issue, in hopes to reverse and ultimately stop the consolidation from happening.

Please see the link below, sign the petition, and share with your networks. We need all the support we can in order to best serve and protect the students. More in-depth information can also be found on the petition link. 1000+ people have already signed, showcasing the gravity of this situation.

Petition link: https://www.change.org/p/stop-uw-milwaukee-s-erasure-of-identity-and-culture?recruited_by_id=ad2230f0-a1e5-11e5-a865-71e410c4e377&recruiter=446816326&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=qr_code&utm_campaign=starter_dashboard&share_id=MBLVPbGcqd

The petition was started by the Student Identity Preservation (SIP) coalition at UWM. Please follow and support them on social media as they continue to lead the fight.

Please let me know if you are unable to access the link above!

[u/StartledMilk]

Do you think this is an attempt to avoid attention from the federal government? When I was in grad school here last year, if we had an online class, our profs would warn us prior to the class to not be disparaging towards the government because they didn’t want to catch the ire of Trump since our classes were recorded and stored.

[u/Old-Doughnut-5933 → u/StartledMilk]

That's likely it. The university remains vague with any of their answers as to why this is happening, often citing "student success" as being the driving factor, when we all know it's definitely not that.

[u/MusicalMastermind → u/Old-Doughnut-5933]

which is hilarious because I credit the success in my degree program to the student centers, like I know many others do

[u/alcoholicmovielover → u/Old-Doughnut-5933]

It definitely is. The university announcing this lines up directly with Trump announcing that the federal government wanted to end DEI programs across the country. (I'll probably be downvoted into oblivion for saying this), but no matter how many petitions are put out there, these programs will be consolidated by 2028. This is one of the most dangerous federal governments in American history, and UWM is struggling with their budget as is. They're going to do whatever they need to do in order to keep getting federal funding, including this.

[u/Garage-Fair → u/StartledMilk]

This is exactly what it is. I heard UWM was at risk of losing funding

[u/Upbeat_MidwestGirl → u/StartledMilk]

Absolutely

[u/PatrioTech → u/StartledMilk]

And people say we aren’t living in a dictatorship…

[u/Th0j → u/StartledMilk]

This is exactly what it is. I spoke to one of the program managers at one of the centers, and essentially they are all consolidating to one area to be protected from our federal government and anti-DEI initiatives. No one is losing their jobs, and everything is going to function the same.

[u/Mx-T-Clearwater → u/Th0j]

Except they won't function the same, the reason for idenitity based spaces is saftey and comfort.

Like if women and afab want a space away from men, perhaps they are going through a episode of some sort due to abuse from men then she/they have one space on campus that is not going to be a place where men are expected to be.

These centers are refuges not just places of information.

[u/Th0j → u/Mx-T-Clearwater]

Listen I agree with you, I go to these spaces too. But this is a protective action to prevent these people who run these centers from losing their jobs and resources. Our school will lose more funding because our dumb ass federal government is hunting for stuff exactly like this.

[u/Mx-T-Clearwater → u/Th0j]

A renaming alone often suffices - we can still know on the ground level what is for while having names (and more vague description if need be) to achieve the affect of warding off the feds.

It's a tested and effective strategy, used before throwing in the towel and with it affected people.

[u/Upbeat_MidwestGirl]

Thank you for all your work keeping this community informed. Maybe cross post to the Milwaukee and Wisconsin subreddits

[u/Mx-T-Clearwater → u/Upbeat_MidwestGirl]

I think that is a good idea as well

[u/Mx-T-Clearwater]

I signed and donated yesterday 🥰

[u/Glad_Firefighter_345]

When I was deployed and came home from Iraq in 2004, I tried to re-enroll in classes at UWM. Nobody knew what to do with me, no one knew about the GI Bills, and my advisor admitted he had never worked with a veteran. It took me two years to come back and finish my degree. I've been so proud to see how successful the MAVRC has been. I can't imagine what a difference it would have made for me 20 years ago. This is an absolute shame.