The University of Colorado at Boulder is known as a leftist bastion, but several years ago a few people who wanted a bit of balance began a program that brings in a visiting professor who flies the flag. This last year, the professor who was chosen for this honor was Frank Beckwith of Baylor. In this Martin Center essay, he reflects on his year.

If you’re expecting to hear about a lot of raucous protests, that just wasn’t the case at all. In the courses Beckwith taught, the students were respectful even when they held opinions different from his. After one course was over, Beckwith was pleased to receive this e-mail from a student: “I have never seen a class in which the students spoke more freely. They (we) truly felt their ideas were welcomed and matter.”

And when Beckwith brought in visiting speakers, there were no riots. It seems that Professor Beckwith and those speakers did some good by planting intellectual seeds and demonstrating that people who reject “progressivism” can still be decent, thoughtful people. The four speakers were Elizabeth Corey of Baylor, Patrick Deneen of Notre Dame, George Yancey of North Texas State, and writer Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option.

Beckwith also gave numerous talks around the state himself. He writes:

What became my standard ’stump speech’ focused on the growing indifference to the attacks on freedom of speech, association, and religion in the wider culture, but especially on our college campuses. As far as I could tell, my message was well received, even by many listeners who do not identify as conservative or libertarian.

The leftist billionaires who worked so hard to turn Colorado “blue” over the last 20 years must hate that this bit of intellectual diversity at the flagship university is to some degree helping to make the state more purple. Let there be more programs like this.