Alston, no, no, no. You misread me. I did not favor removing the art at Brandeis.
Rather, I was highlighting campus extremists’ hypocrisy when their tendentiousness is criticized. One of its favorite techniques is to pretend highmindedly that their one-sidedness advances debate and that they are open-minded to others’ views, when the contrary is true. Extremists are of course free to propagandize on campuses, but our colleges ought not to be propaganda swamps but places where real debate flourishes. To this end campus administrators need reminding that, among the finite number of campus events possible, they need not approve in the first place close-minded, partisan campus events.
Finally – a point I neglected originally to make – propagandistic art (the political and sexually “transgressive” varieties so in vogue at present) is usually ugly and boring, so, yes, I would be “positively glad” if such art (of left or right) disappeared from fine arts departments and campus exhibits.