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Comment by musgrove | Hacker News Reader

Combat it? They could begin by simply not allowing it. They seem to forget who runs these schools, and it's not the students. At least it used to not be. That's a great way to invite disaster. It's not a protagonist/antagonist proposition, but expectations need to be in place from the start. And leadership at places like Middlebury and Berkeley double-checked.

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The students are customers. It's a business. If these customers will continue to get themselves into tens of thousands of dollars in debt to pay for something of sometimes questionable value then let them block or have whatever speeches they want.

Of course on principle this is a disgusting form a censorship that could come to bite them on the ass if it continues to be culturally accepted. They seem to forget that things like interracial marriage, or people of color even being allowed onto these schools were once unpopular ideas.

If they continue to create a culture of violence and intimidation against anyone who dares utter unpopular ideas in their vicinity they'll snuff out any hope of future social revolutions from happening. But this seems to be what they want. It's in some ways an ultra-orthodox, conservative, perversion of left wing ideals.

I think you're wrong who the customers are and what the product is. The customers are the Dept of Education (and banks) offering low interest loans in return for guaranteed profit. This would stop if they stopped seeing returns. Unless they aren't allowed to consider academic prestige when giving loans, then I'm completely wrong.

Does student censorship affect that directly? Probably not, but students running the school more than teachers certainly could.

The Department of Education is the entity receiving the majority of profit from student loans, not banks.

My bad, I edited the comment to reflect that.

No harm, no foul.

What about the rights of students who wish to listen?

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