In a new post at The FIRE, Greg Lukianoff explains that free speech on campus is a sometimes messy but always important aspect of higher education.

When Campus Intolerance Means Free Speech Gets Torn Up and Run Over, Literally

Being offended is what happens when you have your deepest beliefs challenged. And if you make it through four years of college without having your deepest beliefs challenged, you should demand your money back.

I have been saying that line in speeches on campus for more than a decade. Even though it often gets a laugh, the idea that students have an overarching “right not to be offended” seems more entrenched on campus than ever.

Take one recent high-profile example: At the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB), a professor not only seized a graphic anti-abortion sign from protesters, she got into a physical altercation with them and then proceeded to go back to her office to destroy the sign. Now that video of the incident has emerged and the police report has been put out, things are really looking bad for the professor, Mireille Miller-Young; she now faces vandalism, battery, and robbery charges.

I just wish I found the incident the slightest bit surprising. While FIRE proudly defends any university student or faculty member who faces censorship or disciplinary action for speech all across the political spectrum (and much expression that has nothing to do with politics), I make no secret of the fact that students and professors are more likely to get in trouble for socially and politically conservative speech. A case in point is currently taking place at my alma mater, Stanford University, where a student group that opposes gay marriage was told that a conference it was planning to have is “hate speech.”