In the last year, a great issue has come to a head in the bubble known as the American college campus. After years of what some may call "political correctness" on college campuses, a war for the very core of what free speech really means has broken out. Though this war has been fought before, today the war is taking place on multiple planes from the classroom, to twitter and beyond.

Unlike the the 60's, today's defenders of free speech are, for the most part, members of the political right. This group, which is comprised of libertarians, conservatives and those alike, have taken up what the left seemed to have dropped on it's way to "progress". Not even fifty years ago, the fight for free speech was a part of the left's agenda on many college campuses. Today, the tables have gladly turned. Recently, conservative media personality, Milo Yiannopoulos was interrupted by protestors at DePaul University on his American college campus tour. Behavior of this nature at Yiannopoulos’ events is not uncommon, for he is a great provocateur who ruffles many feathers. This, however, went too far. Instead of being civil and hearing Milo out, they jumped on the stage and at one point, a woman with microphone nearly hit Milo. This trend of censorship has always been present at some colleges, but as Robby Soave Reason associate editor said ,“in the last five years, they have gained institutional power.” That power is what really has turned this into a war. If disruptive protesters were properly reprimanded by school officials, this would not be a war. The fact that many deans, presidents and professors agree with, or have bent to the will of the students, is the most disturbing fact of the free speech war.

Recently, this trend was shown in a strange spat between Micheal Bloomberg and Charles Koch vs Colby College English professor Aaron Hanlon. Bloomberg and Koch wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal in which they attack what the american college campus has become. Hanlon then tried, and confusingly failed, to rebut them. Hanlon called out Koch for using his money (which is considered speech) to create what Hanlon calls “safe spaces” for free market ideologies. This is truly confusing. God forbid that anyone gives money to George Mason or The CATO Institute. Additionally, the fact that he is using his free speech to help these organizations is also not mentioned. Hanlon seems to just not like those ideologies, and is okay with other safe spaces because they promote what he likes, which is the left-wing ideology. Hanlon is an assistant professor of English, and he truly believes in this idea of trigger warnings and safe spaces. Later, he says that free speech has become an excuses for bigotry. This is disturbing, but the norm has become a complete fear of the students and faculty, and the administrations are accomplices in this madness.

This comes back to Milo and his trip to DePaul University. The school had ask the student republicans who put on the event to pay one thousand dollars for security. When the protesters started to disrupt the event, security did nothing, on orders from the administration. This type of behavior is in no way allowed by the college, or any college for that matter. Not enforcing the code of conduct on student protestors is a complete failure of the administration and is a disgrace to Depaul as an institution. Instead of teaching the students to listen and debate, the administration has shown them that it’s okay to interrupt and censor differing opinions. There is one silver lining in this whole situation, and it comes from our friend Milo, who throughout the entire protest, sat there and let it unfold. Never once did he try to censor or stop them. Now these protesters have made themselves look foolish, just like any bigot or hateful speaker does when they speak. If you truly want to stop racism, just let a member of the klan speak and they will do the work for you. Censorship of this speech will only lead people to be ignorant of it, and that can have the unintended effect of creating more bigotry. The biggest issue that could arise on a college campus is ignorant students who know little of other opinions except for their own . For example, if a liberal student were to debate a conservative and both only knew about only his or her own ideology, that would not very much of a debate. Having knowledge of what others truly believes makes one not only more knowledgeable, but can make one's own views stronger. I think the way to end this debate about free speech is for all to left or right to learn that sometimes, it is better to listen than to speak. You might learn something new.