MSNBC host Thomas Roberts asked Smith-Lezama to respond to a professor who “complained” universities are becoming intolerant of opposing views.

“One professor complained universities are becoming places of prohibition,” Roberts said. “What’s your feeling? Do you believe that’s a place we are heading for American campuses now? ”

“I personally am tired of hearing that first amendment rights protect students when they are creating a hostile and unsafe learning environment for myself and for other students here,” Smith-Lezama said on MSNBC. “I think that it’s important for us to create that distinction and create a space where we can all learn from one another and start to create a place of healing rather than a place where we are experiencing a lot of hate like we have in the past.”

Smith-Lezama said the treatment of a student journalist who was accosted on Monday should be a “teachable moment” for those who approach the protestors with “hostility.”