EXACTLY RIGHT: Hold administrators accountable for campus free speech crisis, First Amendment advocates tell Congress.

College administrators must accept blame for the severe restrictions on free speech seen on campuses and should be held accountable by Congress so First Amendment rights in higher education can be protected, several pro-free speech panelists told Congress on Tuesday.

“Make them fess up,” Princeton University Professor Robert George told members of the subcommittees on healthcare, benefits and administrative rules and intergovernmental affairs during a joint hearing on “Challenges to the freedom of speech on college campuses.”

George referred to college presidents who seem to pretend as if there’s no free speech crisis on campuses. “Give them a grilling like I’ve seen here,” George said, referring to the sometimes heated hearing that aimed to tackle what many agree is a huge problem on college campuses today.

Professor Bret Weinstein, who left his biology post at Evergreen State College after a mob of angry students aggressively confronted him for refusing to participate in an anti-white “Day of Absence” last year — eventually forcing him to move his class to a park — told lawmakers that the school’s president, George Bridges, sided with the militant students and gave into all their demands instead of telling them what they were doing was wrong.

Weinstein, who was referred to as the “professor in-exile” during the hearing, seemed to argue that leadership can play a strong role in what is allowed to transpire on campus.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer told the representatives that if campus administrators would simply enforce free speech policies on the books and tell rowdy students, “Look, you can’t block access to this door,” things would start to improve.

I think they should be held personally liable for failing to protect students’ rights.