Campus Reform reports that the editor-in-chief of East Carolina University’s official newspaper has received death threats and a call for ISIS-style execution (seriously) over her decision to print the following rant from a student: “Will someone explain to me why there is no ‘White Student Union?’. . . I feel underrepresented.”

Those fifteen words fomented campus-wide outrage. Hundreds of students e-mailed the editor to express their discontent. A member of ECU’s Student Government Association said that he “won’t sleep until this issue is addressed and TEC is held accountable for publishing and providing a platform [for] hate speech that is in direct opposition to the morals of this university.” The Black Student Union and the SGA even held a public forum to discuss the matter.

There’s a quote usually attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville that goes something like this: “The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.” Well, in that same rhetorical vein, free speech will endure until the majority of citizens believe that their subjective sensitivities trump open debate and expression. College campuses, which should worship at the altar of the First Amendment and encourage accessibility and exposure to provocative, dangerous, and challenging ideas, are instead sowing the seeds of political correctness and feeble-mindedness.

And rather than gain a deep understanding of the nuts and bolts of free expression, and why it is a hallmark of any would-be free society, the “future leaders of America” are learning that their whims, their feelings, should eclipse any such first principles.