Free Speech Is Alive and Well at Vanderbilt University

Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University (TN), writes: 

The purpose of a university is to assemble a talented group of students from a range of backgrounds and help them grow and learn as part of a community. This includes teaching them how to appreciate a range of perspectives—and to learn how, not what, to think. The university remains one of the last places in society where people with diverse viewpoints can engage in the kind of civil dialogue that allows them to explore complex topics—and find innovative solutions to difficult problems—together. To this end, university students should debate one another respectfully. They should challenge each other’s ideas, as well as their own. If part of that process involves protest, then they should engage in that, too.