Reynolds: Not all collegiate sanity is lost Surprise! Some colleges still accept free speech. But it is a shame that's newsworthy.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds | USATODAY

Adlai Stevenson once said "A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular." That description hasn't much applied to today's college campuses, where we've seen witch hunts over false rape charges, censorship of unpopular ideas, Orwellian responses to "microaggressions," and absurd demands for "safe spaces" where no contradictory thought may enter.

But there's some good news: Despite these horrors and absurdities, some people on college campuses are actually behaving sensibly, and in keeping with the principles of a free society. It's sad that such behavior counts as news nowadays. But, since it clearly does, it's worth shining a light on the good as well as the bad.

Let's start with the University of Maryland, where President Wallace Loh responded to the circulation of an "offensive" e-mail by remembering that the First Amendment still applies. Loh wrote:

(The university's investigators) concluded that this private email, while hateful and reprehensible, did not violate university policies and is protected by the First Amendment. Following consultation with the university's General Counsel, I accepted the conclusions of this independent investigation that was carried out in accordance with due process.

However, this determination does not mitigate the fact that the email is profoundly hurtful to the entire university community. It caused anger and anguish, pain and fear, among many people. It subverts our core values of inclusivity, human dignity, safety, and mutual respect. When any one of us is harmed by the hateful speech of another, all of us are harmed.

While I might wish for a campus that could hear even hateful speech without reacting emotionally — "yeah, whatever, jerk" seems like the ideal response, rather than talk of "hurt" and "harm" — Loh deserves a lot of credit. The university didn't try to punish anyone for engaging in "badthink," or try to trump up threatening ideas into some sort of bogus physical threat, as some schools have done. Instead, it reaffirmed that people have free speech rights, and that free speech includes the right to express unwelcome opinions, and that the response to ideas that you don't like is ... more speech, not the heavy hand of authority.

Likewise, at Buffalo State College in New York, free speech prevailed, when, after the student government froze funding for the student newspaper and ordered all copies to be removed from campus because some people took offense at its April Fools' issue, the administration stepped in to remind students that free speech is free speech. Buffalo State's Vice President Hal Payne wrote: "While the The Record's April Fools' satire edition may have been upsetting to some and certainly pressed the boundaries of humor, I am concerned that the United Students Government's decision to freeze the paper's funding may infringe on students' right to free speech."

Indeed. And students who are interested enough in politics to be involved in student government should have a greater appreciation of the role of free speech in a free society. I hope that this was educational.

Meanwhile, at Brown University, where a speech on sexual assault by Wendy McElroy was deemed too threatening for the tender ears of Brown students, so that a "safe space" was provided, student Walker Mills wrote a column in The Brown Daily Herald on the absurdity of Ivy League students demanding protection from disagreeable opinions. Mills wrote: "As students, we don't have a right to be comfortable. And if we seek this right out, we are doing ourselves a disservice. The university should take a position where it supports students but pushes them to their absolute limits, challenges their beliefs and makes them uncomfortable. If Brown lets us go four years without forcing us to reevaluate our core beliefs, it has failed us. If we go four years without challenging the dearly held beliefs of someone else in this community, we have failed our colleagues."

Well, yes. That is what college is supposed to be about. It's a pity that so many seem to need reminding of that, and it's a shame that it's newsworthy when people remember. But at least there's some good news to report. More, please.

, a law professor, is the author of The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself.

In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including our Board of Contributors. To read more columns like this, go to the Opinion front page.