Seems like there has been a lot of news about colleges and universities. So the question is simple.
Are colleges and universities tolerant of ALL groups? And I mean all of them, gay, Christian, liberal, conservative, democrat, republican, socialist, capitalist, etc.
The colleges and universities I've been at have been, or at least they try to be. For instance, they've allow all students to form groups, clubs and alliances on campus, from LGBTQ groups to various religious groups. They invite speakers and provide venues for performers from a wide variety of backgrounds too. And of course, they have researchers who study religion, politics, various groups of people and cultures from both an insider and outsider perspective, depending on the campus and its make up.
As a biology teacher, I have to cover topics that make some students uncomfortable on religious grounds (the scientific view of where we and other life forms got to where we are today), and I assume that other classes that focus on history, religious studies, cultural studies, economics and so on may discuss things or provide explanations for things that some students don't like or agree with. But I try to make it clear I'm not telling them what to believe, and I don't mock or bash religious beliefs in class when we discuss the reasons why they're not scientific.
We did have a blow up on the campus exchange a few years back where one faculty member got upset because the Tuvan throat singers were performing on campus. He said that it was a violation of Church and State, since they were religious in nature, and why were Christians the only religion that wasn't allowed to proselytize or perform on campus. It was explained that A. These performers weren't proselytizing, merely demonstrating a technique, and B. There had in fact been several performances by Christian musical groups on campus that year (a gospel group, Gregorian chanting nuns, and the Mormon Tabernacle choir to name a few).
There are issues with regards to individual people who may use their personal space to express themselves in ways that some students find uncomfortable. When I was on the faculty at a college in New York, for instance, a young man was murdered in Wyoming for being gay. Those of us who considered ourselves allies put rainbow stickers on our doors to let LGBTQ students know they were supported. Someone said, but wouldn't that make Christian students uncomfortable? But A. They were assuming that all Christian students would be uncomfortable with this, and B. Religious faculty are permitted to have things in their offices that indicate their faith, even if that makes some non-religious people, or people who associate their religion with discrimination, uncomfortable.
IMO, a rainbow sticker, or a Christian fish or something like that in one's office is not the same as something that overtly puts another group down.
I have a colleague who occasionally puts cartoons on his door that not only express his liberal sociopolitical views, but do so in ways I think are borderline disrespectful of people who don't share them. The chair (who is very liberal also, btw) has talked to him about this a couple of times. It's not that he's breaking any rules, more that he may not come off as an equal ally to all students who need his help during office hours.
Personally, I don't go out of my way to hide my views, and I've discussed them with students who want to engage in that kind of discourse during conversation, but I don't feel that my position is to preach politics and I steer clear of them in class as much as possible. The problem is, of course, that some scientific issues (climate change, evolution, the biology of orientation and gender identity, risks associated with sexuality and so on) are heavily politicized, so when one expresses the current scientific consensus on an issue, some can take it as a political statement. I try to take the "This is what most scientists have concluded, and this is why, but what we should do with this knowledge is something to discuss in ethics or political science classes).
I think there are sometimes flurries of heightened sensibilities or preciousness (depending on one's perspective) that break out on campuses occasionally, especially during election years or when there's been an unpleasant incident somewhere. Different schools handle this differently, and sometimes clumsily. But that's not the same thing as saying that there's a liberal conspiracy to silence people or shame them for being conservative.
The fact is, there are very real issues regarding free speech and so on with colleges and universities. Someone who chooses to hang, say, a Confederate or Nazi flag in his or her dorm room may be expressing their right to free speech, but they are also sending a pretty terrifying message to some of the other residents of their dorm. Likewise, someone who posts a sign that says "Religion stops a thinking mind" in their room, may think they're being clever and punching "up," since most people in America are religious and the non-religious are the despised minority who can't be elected to public office, but on a college campus, some religious people, at least, feel outnumbered and despised too.
How to balance these expressions of free speech that can segue into harassment or hate speech in private versus shared spaces can end up being a sticky issue in an environment where people spend so much time.
Just my 2 cents as someone who has been in academia all my life.
