CMC Professor Gary Gilbert at Inside Higher Ed:
I am suggesting the need to inculcate an obligation to engage, to find ways that members of an academic community can create room for discussion, built on questions rather than conclusions. Anything that promotes bringing people together and discussing the issues should be encouraged; alternatively, anything that inhibits discussion, that alienates, disparages, dehumanizes or demonizes, or that casts the complex issues in a Manichaean proposition of good versus evil, should be rejected.
My second suggestion is directed particularly at university administrators. The leaders of academic institutions should make clear, early and often, their policies on demonstrations and enforce them accordingly. In most cases (and I include my own campus here), these policies exist not to restrict speech, but the very opposite: They are a way to ensure that all persons have an opportunity to speak and be heard. Protests should be an important part of campus life. But protests should not have unlimited scope. Those that monopolize a campus and disrupt normal campus operations, including classes, public events, and access to facilities, can limit the speech and expression of others and should be restricted. Deans in particular should help facilitate discussions about these policies, not only as an informational exercise, but also to bring together students and faculty who might otherwise be on opposite sides of the barricades.