The happy news that David mentions from Southern Illinois today also serves as an unhappy reminder of what a poor job our colleges and universities have done in explaining the rights of free expression and free association to their students. With the amount of emphasis placed on “diversity” and other multiculturalist buzzwords, it’s easy for students to get the impression that political correctness is the ultimate trump card on campus, to which all other values–including the rights of individuals–must be subordinated.

College administrators could go a long way toward fixing this problem if they set aside even a fraction of the time that they spend on “diversity training” and other groupthink to explain the basic rights and responsibilities that are required to sustain a free society. But, of course, this assumes that administrators themselves have an understanding of these basic rights.

The evidence indicates otherwise, as FIRE president Greg Lukianoff makes what should be an obvious point in a press release today: “A Muslim organization has a right to be Muslim, a Jewish organization has a right to be Jewish, and a Christian organization has a right to be Christian. It is not tolerance but intolerance to forbid such voluntary associations.” Universities should be ashamed that FIRE needs to keep reminding them of such simple truths.