College and University Monitor

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger claims that universities today are hospitable venues for free speech and open dabate: "[President Trump's] claim that the campus free-speech order was needed to defend 'American values that have been under siege' ignored two essential facts. First, universities are, today, more hospitable venues for open debate than the nation as a whole. Second, not only have fierce arguments over where to draw the line on acceptable speech been a familiar occurrence in the United States for the past century, but such dialogue has also been indispensable to building a society that embraces the First Amendment."