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Marketplace of Fear

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Last week, we received a long and thoughtful e-mail regarding political uniformity at major universities as well as its consequences for students. The author, a professor, closed his message with the following statement:

[P]lease don’t print this — I have too much fear of what would happen to me if my name became too prominent.

As a result, I will not print any excerpt of his substantive remarks lest anyone recognize the argument and attribute it to him, nor (of course) will I print his name. I wanted to note the closing comment because it is representative of dozens of similar messages I’ve received since I joined Âé¶¹´«Ã½IOS. There is a real climate of fear amongst those who challenge the perceived campus orthodoxy — a fear that is grounded in countless speech codes and countless examples of censorship.

As one person told me this weekend: “If the president of Harvard University cannot even engage the marketplace of ideas without placing his job in jeopardy, how are students supposed to feel if they ask provocative questions?â€

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