Being an open marketplace of ideas is the core function of a university, insofar as a university that is -not- this has no point to calling itself a university at all. Every other function, such as certification and job-readiness, can be achieved through more efficient means. Universities are the -only- mechanism by which scholars, researchers and students are free to test ideas no matter how much they piss someone off or even drive them to agony. A university that has failed at this is a disgrace; a shame; an embarrassment.



Currently, universities can lose federal funding for title IX violations such as discrimination by sex or by publication of fraudulent research, even if the president didn't directly cause the discrimination or publication; the university is treated as facilitating this. Violating open exchange of ideas is an even more severe violation than both of these things, because it contradicts the university's very reason to exist.

Ergo, UC Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks should be held as accountable as he would for lesser violations, and he should be fired ("forced to resign") and admit he's a spineless coward for allowing the purpose of the university he leads to be rendered moot.