Student protests against racial injustice can be responded to while upholding free speech protections for unpopular speech.

FIRE reports.

Amid Campus Protests, University Presidents Push Dialogue and Engagement

University of Maryland (UMD) President Wallace D. Loh wrote an interesting and thoughtful opinion piece this week for TIME’s Ideas blog. It addressed how a university administrator and the larger campus community can respond to student protests against racial injustice while upholding free speech protections for unpopular speech. He emphasized that both are important components of a rich academic marketplace of ideas.

To illustrate his points, Loh recalled an incident that occurred at UMD earlier this year and unearthed many of the same tensions that a number of American campuses have been experiencing in recent weeks. In the spring of 2015, an email went viral that was written by a UMD student the previous year. The email, sent to fellow fraternity brothers, contained racial slurs and appeared to advocate sexual assault. It caused an uproar on campus and led to demands for the offending student to be expelled.

The student was investigated, but the university ultimately determined that, while “hateful and repugnant,” the speech was protected by the First Amendment. FIRE advocated at the time for this result. Afterwards, Loh reports that the student voluntarily undertook training in diversity and sexaul assault. Nonetheless, as Loh states: