BLK PWR Coalition, a student-led organization that advocates for the recognition of the Black community at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will lead a protest at the bottom of Bascom Hill today at 3 p.m.
After a video of a fellow UW-Madison student using racial slurs and threatening the lives of members of the Black community surfaced on Tuesday, the BLK PWR Coalition said in a press release that “we have been working tirelessly this week to ensure that the university takes action to protect Black students.”
The organization is calling for the expulsion of a student who was recorded in the video using racist slurs and saying she wants Black people returned to slavery so she can abuse them.
“The BLK PWR Coalition was actually formed in response to the university’s lack of response to the Audrey Godlewski video,” a member of the BLK PWR Coalition, who requested not to be identified, told Madison365. “And it’s our mission to promote shared values of diversity and inclusion, to engage campus leadership in this endeavor, and to improve institutional access and success through effective retention policies.”
Hundreds of students protested and engaged with UW-Madison leaders in Bascom Hall on Wednesday. Members of UW-Madison’s Black community presented Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin with a list of demands that were requested to be met at 9 a.m. today including the expulsion of the student.
“She sent a letter this morning and we’re disappointed that the response didn’t feel like a call for action to us, but more of a brushing off of our feelings,” a BLK PWR Coalition member said. “And it didn’t put into effect any academic accommodations or extensions, nor did it provide any clear solutions moving forward … other than having an ongoing dialogue. And we’ve had ongoing dialogues with the university before and very rarely, if ever, have we come out of it with what we need.”
The protest at UW Bascom Hall, in the heart of the UW-Madison campus, is set to start at 3 p.m.
