Universities really do have a problem with free speech.
However, it is not the problem that we are frequently accused of, that we stifle it or are politically biased in the free speech that we permit to take place on campus. Rather our problem is that we do not promote free speech anywhere near enough.
This has enabled the powerful view to take hold that somehow universities are against free speech or, at best, are reluctantly tolerant of it and selective in our support. In reality this is very far from the truth as universities are, have always been and I hope always will be, genuine bastions of free speech. Indeed universities are, and always should be, the central places in civil society where free speech enjoys its strongest support.
