**Written by Doug Powers

Once again, the old rule that “every snowflake is different” can be tossed out the window on another college campus, because there are several who work at Washington State University who are exactly alike:

A group of Washington State University professors have decried “discourses of free speech” in an open letter to the campus community, suggesting such defenses of the First Amendment hurt “marginalized students.”

The letter, signed by about two dozen scholars at the school, comes about a month and a half after a 20-foot “Trump Wall” was erected there, prompting a heated protest between students.
[…]
The scholars go on to suggest more must be done to crack down on what they consider hate speech and acts, telling the campus community that the defense of freedom of speech and freedom of expression is harmful:

It is not enough [to] encourage “open-mindedness” and “sensitivity” especially when these passive efforts and rhetoric invariably lead to a culture that accepts and tolerates bigotry and harassment; a campus culture that hides behind “tolerance” and discourses of free speech undeviatingly creates a campus that is especially disempowering to marginalized students.

We must create a campus that asserts that we are anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-xenophobia, antihomophobic, anti-Islamophobic, anti-ableism, and anti-bigotry. We must work to create mechanisms and structures that combat hate, which empower all constituencies to be active in our collective efforts to rid the campus of bigotry and systemic inequality.

Students will know they’re in a “progressive ‘free speech’ only or else” zone when they see this sign on their way to Irony 101 class:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe