November 11, 2015, The Wall Street Journal

Opinion

An Adult on Campus

Mitch Daniels offers a lesson to college administrators.

A view of the Purdue campus on September 26, 2015 in West Lafayette, Indiana. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

We’ve been wondering all week what happened to the grown-ups on American university campuses, and it appears we have a sighting.Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, spoke up Wednesday about the children’s revolt at Yale and Missouri in a letter “to the Purdue community.”

It deserves to be quoted at length: “Events this week at the University of Missouri and Yale University should remind us all of the importance of absolute fidelity to our shared values. First, that we strive constantly to be, without exception, a welcoming, inclusive and discrimination-free community, where each person is respected and treated with dignity. Second, to be steadfast in preserving academic freedom and individual liberty.

“Two years ago, a student-led initiative created the ‘We Are Purdue Statement of Values,’ which was subsequently endorsed by theUniversity Senate. Last year, both our undergraduate and graduate student governments led an effort that produced a strengthened statement of policies protecting free speech. What a proud contrast to the environments that appear to prevail at places like Missouri and Yale. Today and every day, we should remember the tenets of those statements and do our best to live up to them fully.”

So a commitment to tolerance can coexist on campus with a commitment to free speech and open debate. What a concept.