Last spring my usually peaceful campus faced controversies likely to drop us in the annual Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) free speech rankings, which come out around Labor Day.

A presumptive dean of the law school had her job offer withdrawn because she signed an amicus brief on a controversial case before the U.S. Supreme Court. A professor got in big trouble for tweeting support for an Iranian official the Swedish government convicted of murdering political prisoners, without including the required disclaimer that her opinion might not represent that of our university. (See my disclaimer below.)

Then came poster wars. We are a public university--taxpayers own the walls. Policymakers decree those walls shall bear no posters which seemingly support a group the U.S. government has since 1997 designated a terrorist organization.

For years, campus progressives canceled moderates and conservatives for far milder speech--now the right strikes back. I sympathize, but posters are distractions, and canceling deans fights good battles in bad ways. Those tactics get unthinking praise from Fox News and unthinking denunciation in The New York Times, but they don't restore the freedom of thought that once earned universities respect from taxpayers across party lines.

I could easily imagine a campus with all kinds of posters where........

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