You might think that the highly educated folks who run our universities would, when confronted with something like the noose episode, first ask whether it is a real threat or just another trick, and then, assuming it isn’t dismissed as a trick, whether it represents any real problem on campus.
Of course, nothing like that happens. The incident is immediately taken to be a serious threat and the campus mobilized to fend it off with candle-light vigils, speeches, and yet more emphasis on “diversity.”
The situation at Columbia is playing out just the same as the lacrosse case at Duke.