To start with, universities should abolish the restrictive speech codes that many of them adopted in recent years. Any university that threatens to punish students over such an ill-defined infraction as “offensive” speech is empowering censors and bullies. Instead, universities should sign on to the Chicago Principles’ “commitment to free, robust, and uninhibited debate,” as leading institutions including Purdue and Princeton have done in recent years.

Colleges should also reverse the dangerous trend of campus bureaucrats enforcing institutional orthodoxies by shutting down, for example, those university-run hotlines that encourage reports to a “bias response team.” Even when such a body lacks the formal right to punish students for what they say, the prospect of being investigated by senior administrators has a chilling effect. Other intrusive bureaucratic measures include the misuse of Title IX regulations to stifle speech. (A case in point occurred when Laura Kipnis, a feminist professor at Northwestern University, was subjected to a months-long investigation for allegedly creating a “hostile environment” by publishing an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education that was critical of the way her university had handled a sexual-harassment case.)

Steps to communicate a university’s values are just as important. Universities should emphasize their commitment to free inquiry in recruitment materials and admissions letters. They should ensure that students are assigned classic texts on free speech, including critiques of free speech, in their first year. They should encourage students to sign a pledge that they will engage with others’ views respectfully.