Judge Learned Hand, one of the greatest judges and judicial philosophers in America’s history, spoke about the “spirit of liberty” in a speech he delivered in 1944 in Central Park in New York City. “The spirit of liberty,” he said, “is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weights their interests alongside its own without bias.” More than 70 years after that famous speech, we still need that echoing of “spirit of liberty” in our society, particularly on university campuses. 

Universities in the United States have become battlefields of “cultural wars,” in which different ideologies compete and attract the attention of students. In fact, most of the ideological differences can be attributed to discrepancy in political philosophy and religious beliefs. Conservatives describe college campuses as dominated by progressive ideas and liberalism. Ted Cruz of Texas dubbed colleges as havens for “leftist, coddled kids.” 

As the battles deepen, colleges have become less tolerant to ideas that might be far from mainstream, and students are getting more sensitive to issues and languages that they are not comfortable with. Even President Barack Obama asked college students not to be “coddled from different points of views” in a town hall meeting in Iowa last September. 

In an op-ed article appearing in The News & Observer, Professor Molly Worthen of UNC-Chapel Hill pointed out that many schools’ nondiscrimination policies have made life more difficult for Christian ministries that require student leaders to assent to a state of faith, making sure that all students, regardless of their beliefs, are able to attend those students’ groups. Christian groups in many universities, both public and private, have lost access to campus space, student fees and activity fairs. But Worthen also discovered that evangelical Christians have created a network of organizations and journals that thrive and reach out to more students. 

It is ironic that modern-day colleges have been submerged in secular ideas, especially in those private colleges that were founded by Christians and grounded in their values, such as Harvard, Yale, Duke, etc. Thanks to the principle of “separation of church and state,” only private colleges are able to have divinity schools that usually indicate those colleges have long histories and excellent quality of education. 

Colleges that accept modern liberalism have a reason. As the spirit of higher education encourages students to seek truths, “truth” might not conform to only one form. On the way of seeking truth, or doing scientific experiments, it is not uncommon that thoughts outside the conventional wisdom appear and attract people’s attention. Moreover, as being young, innocent and passionate, college students particularly have sympathy to the weak, the poor and the oppressed in a society, and the bravery with which they speak out for them indeed is much sharper than grown adults whose actions are intertwined with a web of self-interest and calculation. 

But students should not deny that what they demand is actually embedded in Christian values, such as “confront the lazy, help the weak and encourage the timid.” Most importantly, Christian values are what have made universities of America the greatest in the world. Not one of the characters of the higher education system in this country is contradictory to Christian values, such as honesty, integrity, respect and freedom. Without these core values, universities certainly would become a corrupt place.  

The conflicts of ideologies on campuses arise because both sides strongly cling to “legalism,” or rules. On one hand, religious groups usually emphasize “rules” at the first step, and it is hard for non-believers to understand. On the other hand, secular groups are too persistent in the perception that they are the minority and the oppressed ones. If both sides are able to soften their stances and change their ways of communication, Hand’s idea of “understand[ing] the mind of men and women” will be restored in college campuses.