STANFORD ACADEMIC FREEDOM CONFERENCE WAS NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC–DOES THAT MAKE IT WRONG? It’s obviously not ideal, but colleges have repeatedly done nothing to ensure that speakers cannot be shouted down or, worse, literally run off of campus. (I guess they’re not up on their Frederick Douglass.) This is why we need a culture of free speech, not just laws and rules about it. There’s little advantage in being free to talk if people aren’t willing to, or even free to, listen.