In a 1981 essay, Colorado State Professor Willard Eddy warned of the danger of universities graduating students who are highly skilled in technical fields but lack an essential humanity. Each generation comes into the world with more potential for becoming barbarians than for becoming saints. No institution is better positioned to sustain such a society than a university. These are places which, by their very nature, are expected to model the highest values of civilization. These two settings are not unrelated and often at odds.
Students come to college, in large measure, unshaped and uncertain.
But they come with strong beliefs and assumptions, looking to the university for knowledge and guidance. As well, our society expects university graduates to be intelligent people. A university's job is to help its students acquire the knowledge to choose wisely and to understand the consequences of their choices. In our classrooms and on our plazas, we must permit all manner of thought and debate, no matter how controversial or offensive. And within such forums we must be especially guarded in our advocacy of one position over another.