From this, it is not too much of a stretch to say that he probably thought the 50 percent of freshmen that rejected Darwinism were speaking out of ignorance. And I don't think he is alone in this view. It seems many professors feel that students arrive at TCU relatively ignorant. This is true to a certain extent. Often students have been in a sheltered environment with others determining what information they receive.
Professors do have a duty to challenge students' ideas.
Professors do have a right to point out inconsistencies in students' thinking. But professors also need to realize that some students hold positions, not out of ignorance but for other reasons. For instance, in studying origins, some students have studied evolution and creation and reached a different conclusion than the majority of scientists. There were no other theories mentioned in the textbooks, and the teachers confined their discussion of origins to evolutionary theory. But I had one biology teacher that offered equal time to any student who wished to explore alternatives to evolution, provided he or she had some evidence.