DAMAGING HIGHER EDUCATION’S BRAND, ONE DIVERSITY WORKSHOP AT A TIME: Yale students agree their campus restricts free speech.

The panelists discussed the issue using an example from last September when Yale student protesters interrupted former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft during an on-campus lecture.

“The idea that he’s not supposed to come is exactly the kind of threat we’re talking about, whether or not it actually happened doesn’t matter,” said John McWhorter, a professor at Columbia University.

“Of course students have a right to say he’s not allowed to come,” Kaminer chimed in. “But to do that shows an intolerance for free speech … and a desire not to hear opposing views.”

Donvan discouraged debaters from discussing last year’s events at Yale when a professor was pushed into resignation for sending out a dissenting letter critical of the university’s attempt to discourage “offensive” Halloween costumes, which sparked several student protests, but the topic naturally came up. . . .

“When someone is told they are racist … in America in 2016,” McWhorter said, “it is practically equivalent to calling them a pedophile.”

Actually, I think that’s in the process of becoming less true.