I'm glad you brought this topic up, because it's certainly timely.
Here is what "free speech" has been on these college campuses:
A swastika painted out of feces on a dorm wall (Mizou)
Swastikas drawn in chalk on campus (Yale)
Nooses left hanging on trees (Duke and U. of Mississippi)
Greek houses hosting "blackface parties" (UCLA)
Student body president called "An Indian piece of sh*t" (U. of SoCal)
The last one is the subject of this article, and it's worth the read, because she talks about how the comments she faced during her run for president called back to what she went through growing up, which is exactly what microagressions are:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ody-president/
Going back to what she had to say, again, her rage is not specifically about the conversation with the campus official; it's a cumulation and he was what triggered it into shouting. Look at it as a rage fest 20 years in the making (guessing at her age).
There's free speech, and there's safety. And calling out and swiftly working to condemn racially and sexually aggressive speech, especially on a PRIVATE college campus, is responsible behavior by an administration. It's protecting your students. The kids (or more likely, their parents) pay a lot of money to go these places; they have a need to feel safe on them.
The thing is, if you're not a minority, micro aggressions are not something you're going to experience in your life. And I know that's something that gets some people very angry and defensive, but it is what it is. We're all members of our culture, and our culture is based around "white male" as the standard and everything else is "minority." It's been that way for centuries; it's not going to change in a couple of decades. The only thing that's changing now is that minorities are starting to feel safe enough in some spaces to speak up, and in many cases now, shout and scream about it. That's a good thing.
I can only speak to micro aggressions I've experienced due to being female, as, being white, I don't experience racial micro aggressions and being heterosexual I don't experience micro aggressions directed at women who identify as lesbian. Micro aggressions wear you out. There are many things I don't like about getting older, but I do very much like no longer having to field the endless comments young women get on the street, largely from guys who I'm sure think they are doing nothing offensive or wrong by saying, "Hello, beautiful!" or "Smile, sweetheart!" or "Hey, Red!" but who don't understand that when you get it six or seven times
every single day of your life, you get worn out. It's not complementary and it's not fun. You have to acknowledge them, you have to be nice, or they get mean REAL quick. I watched one guy trail a young woman for two blocks, nagging her to brighten up (she had smiled at his first comment, but I guess that wasn't enough). After she finally was able to (gently) get rid of him, I made a light comment to her about his persistence and she said, "Right? I mean, I already paid him." (meaning she smiled the first time he spoke to her) Her choice of words wasn't accidental. It wasn't fun for her. She had to give him something to make him take his unsolicited attention away.
I'm sure every single female on this board has similar stories. Hell, I remember a old guy, when I was TWELVE, stopping my dad at the grocery store and, indicating me, saying to my dad, "Well, you're keeping her nice and thin!" Over thirty years later, I still remember it, and how weird it made me feel.
Now, add in going your whole life with the term "p*ssy" meaning something weak and undesirable. "Douche." "You throw like a girl." "You drive like a woman." Hell, vagina has been used as an insult on this very board by at least one of our esteemed members. Over years, over decades, it all adds up. You're a woman. You're not as good. Just because.
I can't stress enough that what's going on at the Yale campus is not about one email about Halloween costumes, and that woman's outburst was not about the conversation with the official. It's about much, much more.
The shame of it is, that a culture of patriarchy (again, being white, the only one I can speak to with any sense of it as a minority) is damaging to men, too. Short men are only perceived of as less attractive because our culture dictates men should be taller than their partners (Why? one asks. Because a taller woman implies what to us? Why does that bother us?). And fact is, the leading indicator that someone will commit a violent crime is being born male. Why? Why are boys so much more likely to grow up to be violent? (To me, it's because our culture's focus on "strong" and "stoic" means we don't teach boys how to deal with their emotions and then they grow up to hit people smaller than they are)
But it's our culture. Change is scary. How tightly we all cling to the chains that bind all of us.