Outside of the narrow range of courses that deal explicitly with government policy are the range of courses that touch on policy indirectly. Could a teacher report about violence, criminality, or poor health practices in an ethnic community, without being charged with bias against that group?

A common view expressed by university personnel is that institutions of higher education are better qualified than anything associated with government to deal with academic extremists who use their positions improperly. Against them, critics note that universities have dealt with faculty members who harass students sexually, but not politically.

Current arrangements are not perfect. But universities are not supposed to be smooth running institutions where all agree with one another. Where harmony does prevail, such institutions would have trouble calling themselves universities.

On the edge of credibility are institutions in the US and elsewhere that have adopted, and may actually implement codes of behavior that threaten freedom of expression in the name of protecting students and staff from humiliation, disrespect, or other modes of embarrassment.

Nastiness in the classroom and among student organizations may not be pleasant. The issue may be especially problematic where it coexists with tolerance of those who would boycott Israel and spill over to anti-Semitism against Jewish students and teachers.

Some claim that disrespect is forbidden on campus, except when directed against Jews or Israelis.

Against all this is the point that criticism is the essence of learning, and that learning is impossible without it.

Two of my own lessons about the nature of higher education derived from people who have been colleagues and friends in the political science department (and among its retirees) for more than 40 years. One was introduced to my work by a negative review that I published about one of his books, then acted to recruit me to his department. He felt that students and colleagues would benefit from someone who worked in the same field, but in a manner different from him. Another has written from the far left that Israel is a fascist society. However, we once talked when he picked me up at a bus stop. It was 1982, he was in the dusty uniform of a major in the IDF reserves, on his way home from Lebanon. Most of the way to our neighborhood, he spoke with pride about his activities in the past week as a tank commander. Then he sought to recruit me to join him in the next day's demonstration against the war. The day after, he'd be returning north for another spell of fighting.

What saves the better places in the messy arena of higher education is the right of those who feel criticized to respond in kind, whether they are students, faculty, members of the public or politicians.

Neither Kasher nor Bennett should be surprised that they are being trashed by people they are trying to control.

Sound and fury in the academy and about the academy