Whatever you do, don't offend any Muslims! Or any "victims" either!!

When faculty at the University of Minnesota put up a poster, advertising an event examining the Charlie Hebdo attack, some Muslim students complained that it offended them.  Reportedly, the university investigated and issued a report that questioned the judgment of those who signed off on the posters.  Some got an email from the administration that they interpreted as a take-down order.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/05/u-minnesota-responds-student-complaint-about-posters

Free speech and academic freedom... so long as we don't stray from the PC party line.  

I'm currently preparing to teach "Hate Crimes" in the Fall at my university.  The line between hate crime and hate speech is a gray one.  Is hate speech itself a crime?  The Supreme Court emphatically says "no."  But apparently that's not good enough for many schools.

Another point about rhetoric:  It's become common for many sexual-assault and -harassment policies to refer to the complainant as "the victim."  Together with a relaxed standard of proof --- more likely than not --- and the case is stacked against the accused from the very start.  Courts call the accusers "plaintiffs." The EEOC calls them "complainants."  But we typically call them  "victims."

As the media increasingly shift from news to info-tainment --- just watch the "Today Show" some morning, if you haven't lately --- and talking heads screaming to be heard above one another... only higher education stands for truth-seeking in our society.  If we abandon that mission for the sake of PC policies and inoffensive communications, there will be no authoritative source left.

These trends don't give me a lot of confidence.

A dozen years ago I wrote this:
The Role of Higher Education in the 21st Century: Collaborator or Counterweight? CHANGE MAGAZINE, V. 33, No. 5, Sept/Oct 
I think it still resonates.