Protesting at the Library

On Sunday, December 14, a crowd of between 800 and 1,000 people marched from Bascom Hill through campus before entering “the academic heart” of the university, College Library. Once there, they staged a “die-in” on all three floors of the undergraduate library to protest the police and civilian killings of unarmed black men.

Organized by the group Ferguson to Madison, the “die-in” at the library was met with respectful silence by the hundreds of students studying for final exams.  Library director Carrie Kruse appreciated being made aware of the event by university administration and UWPD, and quickly shut-down rumors that the library was going to close early that day. Meanwhile, on Twitter, the university’s position was captured in a popular post, “We allow people to gather in @college_library for any number of reasons all through the year.”

Read coverage of the event in the Badger Herald, Daily Cardinal, The Capital Times, Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin Public Radio, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Inside Higher Education.