How pressure from donors, community escalated during pro-Palestinian protests at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone thought he'd be exhaling.

But the day after reaching a deal with student protesters, the campus crisis that consumed Mone in early May wasn’t over. In fact, it was intensifying.

The agreement called for a ceasefire in Gaza, condemned "genocide" and promised not to ticket pro-Palestinian student protesters for violating the state rule against camping on campus. Angry emails and phone calls poured in from the Jewish community and some of UW-Milwaukee’s biggest donors, who saw the agreement as inflammatory and irresponsible.

“Please know this is the most difficult professional and personal dilemma with which I have dealt,” Mone emailed Sheldon Lubar, a Milwaukee businessman and philanthropist who is Jewish. “There have been no easy answers as we worked around the clock for two weeks to end an encampment in a peaceful manner.”

More than a thousand pages of newly released records reveal more insight into the pressure Mone and UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin faced during historic protests that swept colleges across the country and could return this fall.

The stakes were high. Donors threatened to pull their gifts. Many professors urged for a resolution without police intervention. Muslim and Jewish leaders saw the situation from their sides while the chancellors had to understand it from every angle and find some way forward — all before graduation day.

Their parallel tracks diverged at critical moments. UW-Madison sent in police and UWM did not, at least in part due to a lack of outside police help. UW-Madison negotiated a politically neutral agreement while UWM's drew a public rebuke from Mone's boss. By July, Mone would announce his resignation.

In an email foreshadowing what was to come, Lubar told Mone: “It was obvious that your seat was going to get very hot."

Here’s how it played out over 20 days this spring:

As protests took over campuses, UW officials had 'no intel of anything special'

Mnookin and Mone closely watched other colleges in late April, unsure when or if the protest movement would arrive in Wisconsin.

“Some of what is going on out there (esp at Columbia) is NUTS,” Mnookin texted her chief of staff sometime that month. “Some of the very worst things are quite possibly not students. But sheesh.”

On the weekend before protesters pitched tents April 29, UW-Madison officials met with people from Gov. Tony Evers’ office, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, the Madison Police Department, Capitol Police and city leaders. Some UW-Madison leaders worried students may occupy Bascom Hall, the administration building housing the chancellor’s office, or Memorial Union.

At UW-Milwaukee, officials knew of an April 29 rally but were unaware of plans to set up an encampment. Even on April 28, the university’s interim police chief told the executive director of Hillel Milwaukee, a Jewish student organization, that “we have no intel of anything ‘special’ occurring.”

That same weekend, another UWM official, dean of students Adam Jussel, reached out to a pro-Palestinian student group leader, offering to connect them with the chancellor by the end of the semester and reaffirming their right to protest, but not camp.

The student, whose name was redacted from the records, declined to meet with Mone. Because UWM hadn’t yet called for a ceasefire in Gaza, the student told Jussel “there was nothing more we can say” and it was time for action.

Jussel forwarded the response to his boss, saying, “I’m not sure what else we can do.”

Mnookin texted Mone just before 9 p.m. on April 28: “I hear you are expecting protest tomorrow too. Hope it all goes ok.”

“It’s incredibly challenging, and I hope things don’t escalate for either of us,” he texted back.

Tents go up April 29 at UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee

The students marched, carrying signs and bullhorns. They called attention to the war’s death toll and demanded their universities cut ties with Israeli companies.

Then the tents came out. Immediately, the dynamic shifted at both UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee.

Mone updated UW System President Jay Rothman on the development.

“We are calling for outside aid to remove the tents. Human chains have been formed and force will be required,” he texted.

Less than two hours later, it became clear Mone wouldn't have outside help. Milwaukee police didn’t want to be involved and the Sheriff’s Office was also hands-off, Mone wrote in a text to Rothman and Mnookin. With more than 200 protesters and a campus police force of just 34 officers, “we can monitor with current numbers but not enforce much.”

The Milwaukee Police Department wouldn't say if they declined a request to get involved, saying "there were no incidents that required MPD to remove students." The Sheriff's Office didn't respond to requests for comment. Asked if UWM could have even sent in police had it wanted to, a university spokesperson said the UWM Police Department does not share tactical decision-making or information.

By midday, the encampments at UW-Madison’s Library Mall and outside UW-Milwaukee’s Mitchell Hall evolved into big outdoor hang-outs. Students tossed footballs, spread blankets on the grass and distributed snacks as Palestinian music played from portable speakers.

The mood was much more tense among administrators. Even though the protesters were peaceful, people saw them as a problem that needed an immediate fix.

“If UWM gives in to any of these bullshit demands, you will get no more dollars from the Zore’s,” former Northwestern Mutual CEO Edward Zore emailed Mone. “These are dumb kids that can’t think, and they have no business being in college.”

“These are challenging times and there is simply little room to negotiate here,” Mone responded.

UW-Madison administrators also felt backed into a corner. Protesters asked on social media for sheets of plywood with door handles, presumably to use as shields against police.

“Not sure what de escalation is possible,” Mnookin’s chief of staff texted her.

UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee diverge in protest response

As the days passed and the tents remained, pressure mounted.

Rabbi Joshua Herman of Hillel Milwaukee worried about Jewish students’ safety.

“I cannot believe these tents are still up,” he texted Jussel, the UWM dean of students, on April 30. “And please tell the chancellor that I expect a personal phone call from him today.”

For others, the encampments disrupted daily life.

Two UWM instructors complained in emails about accessing classrooms in the ZAO MKE church, which was located across the street from the encampment. One of them said a protester controlled who could enter the building, and three of his students didn’t show up to class. Another instructor requested his classes be moved to a different location.

At UW-Madison, Mnookin made the call for police to break up the encampment May 1. She texted the dean of students just before 7 a.m. to make clear protesters could walk away instead of facing arrest. She would later say using law enforcement against the campus community is “the last thing” a chancellor ever wants to do.

UW-Madison’s action raised the temperature in Milwaukee. Some began to call out UWM for what they saw as inaction, including UWM donors Jodi and Karen Peck. The university’s Peck School of the Arts is named after their family.

“We believe that you are ‘passing the buck’, burying your head in the sand and not actively dealing with this serious issue,” they emailed Mone on May 1. “Your communications have been weak and an affront to the Jewish community."

That same day, Joel Berkowitz, director of UWM’s Center for Jewish Studies, reached out to Mone and the UWM police chief, urging them to stand down.

“I’m finding it literally painful to see so many campuses getting this moment very wrong,” Berkowitz emailed. “I hope we can continue to get it right.”

Mone thanked Berkowitz for the encouragement, then asked him for help.

“The pressure I get politically and from higher administration is manageable (for now) but the pressure from local Jewish leaders is concerning,” Mone said.

Still, Berkowitz pressed UWM about how it responded to the protesters’ demand to end all study abroad programs in Israel. The university said it had no active study abroad programs in Israel, but Berkowitz noted UWM does have current study-abroad agreements with two Israeli universities – students just hadn’t enrolled in either program since 2018.

“To me, this wording reads like hiding under a desk rather than embracing who we are,” he said.

UWM saw other demands, such as divesting from Israeli companies, as impossible to meet. Mone lamented protesters’ lack of “willingness to engage.” Jussel said he was trying to think of a “carrot” to offer as a show of good faith.

By May 3, it was clear the week had weighed on Mone. He told Urban Studies professor Joel Rast he faced “immense pressure to do things that, frankly, I don’t think will benefit us, particularly in the long run.”

Negotiations, agreements and an apology

As the encampments entered the second week, meetings with student organizers continued at UW-Madison and began at UWM. Progress felt slow. Mone called the ordeal “a slog.”

Protesters walked out of a meeting at Madison, declaring negotiations over. Yet two days later, on May 10, they reached a deal with UW-Madison, hours before commencement weekend began.

UWM worked through the weekend and hashed out an agreement May 12. It immediately backfired.

Just 16 minutes after UWM emailed the campus community about the deal, Herman of Hillel Milwaukee texted Jussel: “I am absolutely livid.”

In an unusually critical statement toward a chancellor, Mone’s boss, Rothman, said universities need to remain politically neutral on controversial topics and ensure students are held accountable for their actions.

None of the records the Journal Sentinel received show Mone sharing the agreement with Rothman ahead of it being publicly announced. UWM and UW System wouldn't say if the university shared the deal with Rothman in advance.

A nonprofit that was mentioned in the deal also objected, saying it hadn’t been consulted and disagreed with the language.

UWM’s chief fundraiser, Joan Nesbitt, fielded emails from angry donors and tried to assuage them. She warned one upset benefactor of a fundraising letter arriving soon in the mail that she had unsuccessfully tried to stop. The UWM Foundation hired two crisis communciations firms the university worked with in the aftermath of the protests.

Even as the situation spiraled, a review of Mone’s inbox over this 20-day period showed nearly three-fourths of the messages he received were complimentary and supportive.

“Don’t let anyone make you feel bad about doing the right thing,” UWM English professor Lane Hall emailed Mone.

Mone apologized to donors and the campus community. He told Lubar, whose name is on several campus buildings, he would work to restore trust with the Jewish community.

“We are not pro-Palestinian any more than we are pro-anything,” Mone wrote May 13. “In the process and in our words, the agreement clearly has created anger, hurt, and fear. I sincerely regret that and will work as hard as possible to remedy this.”

As a chancellor plans to step down, protests may return

Fifty-one days later, Mone announced he would step down as chancellor at the end of the coming school year. UWM declined to elaborate on whether Mone's handling of the protests played any role in his resignation, referring back to his July 3 message announcing his plan to return to teaching. Mone was unavailable for an interview.

Sudent protesters' plans for the fall are taking shape. The UW-Madison group declined to share details on what, if anything, could occur.

UWM protesters disrupted a UW Board of Regents meeting earlier this summer and expect to march at the Democratic National Convention later this month. They also plan to "keep going strong" this fall, with protest leader Audari Tamayo saying another encampment could be established if UWM reneges on the deal.

Both UW-Madison and UWM protest groups remain active on social media, occasionally resurrecting the battle cry that dominated their encampments.

"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!"

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Inside University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Milwaukee protest deals