The Rise of the Comfort College
At American universities, personal grievances are what everyone's talking about.
Elite private education is on the cusp of a new era.
Photographer: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
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Last year, in the fall of 2018, I tried to stand up for campus free speech.
A small group of faculty at Williams College in Massachusetts, where I teach philosophy, had circulated a petition to have our institution sign a national pledge of allegiance to principles of free expression that originated at the University of Chicago. Over 50 colleges and universities, including Princeton and the Citadel, had already adopted the mainstream liberal principles, protecting both speakers and protesters.