Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights

According to Downs, the committee has been central to campaigns on Academic freedom opposing student and other reforms:

The Madison campus has witnessed as many free speech and academic freedom controversies as any other campus in the nation over the course of the last two decades. We have grappled with such issues as student and faculty speech codes, anonymous complaint boxes, a Reebok speech code, several conflicts relating to the student fee system (including a 2000 Supreme Court case on this issue, Board of Regents v. Southworth), department speech codes masquerading as “professional conduct codes,” numerous student newspaper controversies, student discipline reform, and individual cases implicating faculty members and staff. Academic freedom and free speech have prevailed in these cases because of the political mobilization of faculty members, often led by a unique independent group, the Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights.