The topic in Something to Think About is “Free Speech at Institutions of Higher or is it Lower Education?” By now you’ve heard that the insurrections at Yale University and the University of Missouri have spread to campuses from California to New Hampshire. Students demand trigger warnings to protect them from uncomfortable topics in the classroom and on the campus, protection from micro-aggressions, safe spaces where no one will challenge their prejudices, programs to address racism, resources to investigate race, ethnicity and other aspects of social identity, new required courses for all students on these topics and even as far as free tuition. In many cases the reaction of administrators has been to cave in to these demands and in some cases resign.
Is it the role of universities to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable or even offensive? Has the cornerstone of American universities, that is academic freedom, been compromised and lost? Should administrators bow to the demands of the student protesters?
