SANE VOICES ON CAMPUS: Put down the Megaphones. Richard Shweder, an anthropologist at the University of Chicago, explains how private schools can support free speech while banning its more disruptive forms. He also quotes some excellent advice given by the president of Columbia University to the incoming freshman class in 1946:

“You who have reached the age of advanced study will, of course, have opinions, maybe even prejudices; but acceptance in an academic community carries with it the obligation to submit those opinions and those prejudices to examination under the bright light of human thought and experience. If, perchance, your views have been crystallized into slogans held aloft on banners, or are subject to control by allegiance to minor or major pressure groups, check your banners and your membership cards at the college gate.”

Of course, this advice to check the banners at the college gate would horrify the students who camped at Columbia this year. Slogans are all they’ve got.