Erwin Chemerinsky, dean and professor at University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and Howard Gillman, chancellor and professor of law and political science at University of California, Irvine, call on campus officials "to publicly and emphatically reaffirm that all ideas and views may be expressed on campus, period and without exception" in this New York Daily News opinion column.
Conservatives are thrilled when they are kept from speaking because they can "portray themselves as victims, vilify the left as intolerant, and accuse campuses of being more concerned about indoctrination than the robust exchange of ideas," the authors write. "It is essential that campuses, and especially progressive students and faculty, not fall for this ploy."
Campus officials "need to explain that universities cannot perform their core mission of creating and transmitting new knowledge if they establish orthodoxies of opinion and punish individuals who challenge prevailing wisdom."