In two recent cases, college administrations cautioned their communities that free speech rights should prevail even when the speech is hateful, offensive or otherwise unsettling. But students at Brown University were recently offered an alternative event to a talk from a speaker skeptical of arguments there is a prevailing “campus rape culture.” In response a student wrote in a column in the student newspaper, “As students, we don’t have a right to be comfortable. … The university should take a position where it supports students but pushes them to their absolute limits, challenges their beliefs and makes them uncomfortable. If Brown lets us go four years without forcing us to reevaluate our core beliefs, it has failed us.” (Springfield News-Leader, April 6, 2015, by Glenn Harlan Reynolds)
Kathleen McCartney, CNN, September 4, 2014, wrote in response to cancelled commencement speeches that colleges must foster discussion of divisive issues including immigration policies and also create forums safe for speakers from across the political spectrum.