Kelly Meyerhofer and Sophie Carson:

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.