Last year, the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder) appointed Steven Hayward as its first Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy.

How has his year been going so far?

He is being treated with the kind of “tolerance” for his political diversity as we have come to expected at progressive institutions. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has these details.

University of Colorado Student Government (CUSG) members argued in an article for Colorado Daily last week that Hayward crossed a line when he argued on Colorado Public Radio that women should respond to sexual harassment by simply slapping the harasser. They recognized that “CU-Boulder has a responsibility to promote a diversity of views,” but argued that “[b]igotry is not diversity.” To the contrary, while it may be socially unacceptable at many universities, “bigotry”—or however you might characterize Hayward’s suggestion—still constitutes a viewpoint that cannot be selectively censored by a public institution like CU-Boulder.

Similarly, CU-Boulder Faculty Assembly Chairman Paul Chinowsky said that some of Hayward’s remarks shared on a non-university blog were “offensive, bordering on … hate speech.” In a faculty meeting last Thursday, Chinowsky asked whether the faculty should “allow this or condone this” language, but the answer is constitutionally mandated: The university must not punish Hayward for expressing his opinions as an individual on a private blog.

Chinowsky continued: “If any (other) faculty member said this, we would find ourselves in a dean’s office or possibly on suspension for writing this.” Sadly, that may be true as a practical matter—FIRE has certainly seen similar occurrences before. But were an administrator at a public university to take disciplinary action against a professor for questioning the legitimacy of different sexual orientations or identities, that administrator should expect to lose a lawsuit for violating the First Amendment.

Thankfully, not all faculty members are on the fence about how to respond. One professor alluded to the distinction between official sanction and social ramifications:

CU law professor Aya Gruber said while she disagreed with the substance of Hayward’s comments, she didn’t want the faculty to become the “free speech police.”

“I don’t like what he said, but I want the right to say that I don’t like what he said,” Gruber said. “He has an absolute right to say what he wants, but along with that right, he has to expect this kind of backlash when you say things that are deliberately provocative and not very well thought out.”

Gruber’s analysis is correct.