Expose college students to all types of speech: #tellusatoday

President Obama spoke at a town hall meeting at a high school in Des Moines on Sept. 14 in which he criticized oversensitivity for curbing free speech on college campuses. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

Colleges have to be places for discussion and exchange, where authority is challenged and the general consensus is not automatically accepted.

— Modesto Rodriguez Montes

Political correctness or incorrectness should be an option. People should cultivate a sense of self where they feel comfortable vocally combating points of view that they disagree with or that offend them.

If you allow speech you disagree with to fill you with overwhelming fear, you will cease to have a political voice. This is an individual’s problem, but one that can be overcome. The world will always have hate. Trying to forbid its expression is a waste of time.

— Camilla Keenan-Koch

I’ll agree that individual sensitivities seem to have increased significantly in the past decade or more, both on the extreme right and left.

But in general, this belief that free speech is being systematically destroyed on college campuses ranks right up there with the “War on Christmas” as just another example of Americans’ lust for phony outrage.

College campuses are still open and challenging. Move along. The world has more pressing issues to address.

— Steven Bernhardt

Letter to the editor:

I am annoyed with your editorial in Thursday’s paper. Although I agree with your basic tenet that speech codes are abused, overbroad and often counterproductive, I find your arguments jingoistic and simplistic (“Recommit to free speech on campus: Our view”).

Moreover, the editorial ignores the impetus behind these codes of conduct. These rules protected minorities from verbal abuse/aggression and overt racism by the majority. In addition, they were an attempt at preventing bullying and escalation with the potential for violence.

Speech codes have over-stepped. But I do believe that there must be some limits. A college/university is a closed community, and the administrators have the right and obligation to protect students from bullying, harassment, overt racism and abuse. A college is for learning.

Bruce Hlodnicki, M.D.; Indianapolis

We asked what our followers thought of college campuses clamping down on ideas students might find offensive or hurtful. Comments from Twitter are edited for clarity and grammar:

It is ridiculous. One of the main points of college is to challenge your beliefs.

— @Chase1717

College exists for the exchange and testing of ideas. Otherwise, it’s a memorize-and-repeat factory.

— @FieldGeorge

For more discussions, follow @USATOpinion or #tellusatoday.