HARTFORD, Conn. — As debates about race and other social issues flare on campuses, college presidents are increasingly intervening to draw a line when cultural sensitivity conflicts with freedom of speech.
At schools including Yale, Williams College and Wesleyan University, leaders have in recent weeks taken steps to assert the importance of the free expression of ideas, even those that some might find objectionable.
School presidents reject critics’ portrayals of today’s college students as coddled and overprotected, but some say students arrive in need of help learning to engage others with contrary opinions. In their responses to barriers that go up around some discussions, they say they strive to keep conversations going, often reminding students that a commitment to free speech is part of building an inclusive campus.
At Williams, a liberal arts school in western Massachusetts, President Adam Falk expressed frustration when a student group last month canceled a speaking invitation for writer Suzanne Venker, a critic of feminism. Picking up on a theme from a convocation address earlier in the semester, he wrote to the campus community that learning cannot occur without exposure to a wide range of ideas.
