The group carried flags and signs supporting Palestine and criticized Maric's approach to free speech and academic freedom during her tenure as president of the University of Connecticut, a post she has held since 2022.

"We deserve a chancellor who has a track record of being accountable to and in right relations with students and community," said Aireale Rodgers, an assistant professor who spoke on behalf of the United Faculty & Academic Staff union.

Leaders of the Teaching Assistants' Association, the union representing graduate student workers at UW-Madison, also called on the board to reject Maric.

"We urge the Board of Regents to take seriously the academic autonomy and free expression at the core of a public university," the leaders said in a statement Thursday.

The criticism centers in part on Maric's communications with university donors and community members after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza. The editorial board of The Daily Campus, UConn's student newspaper, wrote last year that those communications were "completely inappropriate and unprofessional for the leader of this university" and amounted to "an indictment of how this school has handled the influence of this conflict on UConn's campus."

In her application materials for the UW-Madison job, Maric said she has "prioritized student well-being, safety and freedom of expression in managing protests by members of the student body and campus community around conflicts in the Middle East."

Speaking to a crowd in the Memorial Union on Friday, Maric emphasized the importance of civil discourse, freedom of expression and academic freedom. She noted that UConn did not adopt a policy of institutional neutrality, arguing that events beyond campus can still warrant a response from university leadership.

"There is a lot of pressure now from the federal government of what we can and cannot do," Maric said. "We never embraced a neutrality policy because we still believe that there are events that are happening outside of the campus, that our community has a strong say or strong feelings about."

UW-Madison adopted a different approach under then-Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin in 2024, issuing a policy stating the university would speak on issues that "directly and significantly relates to our mission, operation and core functions" rather than take positions on national and global events.

Maric, who previously served as UConn's vice president for research, innovation and entrepreneurship, said she was drawn to UW-Madison's reputation as a top research institution. She cited comments by Francis Halzen, a UW-Madison professor who won the Nobel Prize in physics last month, crediting the university's investment in his work. That was "very important for me, as a scientist, to hear," she said.

She said university leaders need to "work tirelessly" to provide resources and opportunities to researchers, and should be proactive in helping graduate and international students obtain visas despite recent challenges from the federal government.

Asked about preventing sexual assault and hazing, Maric said campuses must be proactive to ensure such incidents never happen, and when they do, must have systems that support victims.

"Every president and every community first has to be proactive and make sure that it never happens. And when it happens, it has to have then a system that supports the victims, and it has to have humility and humanity," she said.

Maric said she personally met with a student to understand what she went through and provide support "as a leader, as a mother, as a woman."

"I take it really personally that every victim has to be heard. ... And that's not always easy because usually our tendency is to protect the institution first," she said, adding that the individual should be protected.

Maric is one of three finalists who visited Madison this week. Rashid Bashir and John Coleman, both from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, presented on Monday and Thursday, respectively. Questions for the candidates were required to be submitted in advance, and Annie Jones, a professor in UW-Madison's Division of Extension, moderated the discussions, drawing on more than 70 submissions from the campus community.

Community members can provide feedback on the candidates through an online survey until 10:30 a.m. Saturday. A small committee of regents is scheduled to meet Saturday to consider a recommendation to the full Board of Regents, which will appoint the next chancellor. The person selected is expected to start next year.

The new chancellor would succeed Mnookin, who left UW-Madison in May to become president of Columbia University in New York. Eric Wilcots, dean of UW-Madison's largest college, has served as interim chancellor during the search.

Media outlets in Connecticut have speculated in recent weeks about whether Maric's contract as UConn president would be renewed. Connecticut House Speaker Matt Ritter, who had been rumored as a possible successor, told The Connecticut Mirror this month, "My understanding is there won't be a vacancy, so there's nothing to consider." The Hartford Courant recently reported that Maric's contract expires at the end of June and that she "is being considered for positions at three other universities," without specifying which schools aside from UW-Madison. Maric said reports about her contract, "including that the 'board didn't reappoint me, or that I had been fired'" were untrue, according to the Courant.