Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro says today's college students are "caring, complex, committed and clear-eyed," in this commentary published by The Los Angeles Times.
"Witness how comfortable they are with difference. Fears and hatreds that have plagued this nation from its founding are unacceptable to today's college students," Schapiro says in the commentary, which he co-authored with Barry Glassner, a professor of sociology and former president of Lewis & Clark College. "They have trouble understanding prior generations' obsession with differences in sexuality and sexual expression, in race and ethnicity, and in gender.
"Gay or straight? Black or white? Male or female? They reject labels and dichotomies and how they're used to oversimplify and do harm."
Schapiro adds that even the worst of today's college students "tend to be more caring and respectful of others than were their egotistical counterparts of an earlier generation, who put advancing their careers above everything."
"Maybe it's us elders who are the sanctimonious snowflakes," concludes Schapiro, referring to recent comments by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.