America’s universities are supposed to be places 
where students can get an education. The vast 
majority of students want that. Some, however, 
do not. They want a “safe space” where their 
strange ideas about society can be aired 
without criticism, and where they can 
unilaterally punish other students for failing to toe the mass line. These student activists want blood.
At Yale University, last week, a number of 
members of the Black Student Alliance physically surrounded an administrator and 
berated him for standing up for free speech 
and are now demanding his resignation. 
Caught on camera, one can easily see 
how dangerous the situation was.
In another example, the president of the 
University of Missouri, Tim Wolfe, has resigned. 
His resignation comes after more than 
30 members of the football team threatened
 not to play unless he was forced out. Their claim 
was that, in unspecified ways, Wolfe failed to 
eradicate “structural racism” on campus.
These situations have much in common, and
 the story is becoming a familiar on
First, both situations involve student activists 
disrupting education, allegedly on behalf of 
education. At Yale, the activists claimed that 
allowing free discourse and debate and 
challenging their assumptions threatened the
 “safe space” they thought Yale was.
At Mizzou, activists claimed that failing to deal 
with “structural racism” was harming their 
education. Both groups of students listed not
 specific harms, but rather vague interests in 
feeling good at their university.
Second, both situations involve administrators
 being asked to clamp down on the free expression
 of other students. At Yale, students were upset 
that Yale administrators were not clamping 
down on Halloween costumes. At Mizzou, students wanted more unspecified action against perceived
 racism on campus.
Third, both situations involve menacing groups 
of students that come very close to physical 
violence. At Yale, for example, students physically encircled the administrator, shouted him 
down, and got very close to him in a 
threatening manner. At Mizzou, students 
physically surrounded the car of Wolfe 
and demanded he exit the vehicle into the mob.
This pattern is becoming more prevalent on 
American campuses. In the name of education, 
education is being disrupted by intolerant 
student activists, harming the experience for
 everyone else. At my alma mater, New York
 University Law School, a small cadre of 
students is complaining about Halloween
decorations that included a man hanging 
from a noose, because such a decoration was
These students, complaining about harmless 
decorations at an optional fall party, are 
attempting to assert disruptive political 
control over all aspects of educational life.
If one accepted all of the claims and agreed
 with the political aims of the student activists,
 one might think it advisable to close such
 unrepentantly bigoted universities down.
A more moderate response by university 
officials, however, would be to take their job 
as educators seriously. If a student seeks to 
disrupt the safety or education of another 
student, punish the disruptor.
If that were to happen, colleges would once 
again become “safe spaces” for free thought and expression.
This piece has been updated to state that 
Jonathan L. Butler’s hunger strike was for 7 days.