I'm Sarah Wildman,
a staff editor and writer for the New York Times opinion section.
Campus protests and rallies have been percolating since October 8th,
but in the last week, something shifted.
Make some noise, the police!
New York City police used force last night to zip-tie the hands of dozens of student protesters and haul them away in buses.
Protests against Israel's assault on Gaza have rocked campuses from coast to coast over the past week.
The ongoing demonstrations have stirred debate about the line between free speech for the protesters and open harassment of Jewish students.
It seems on and off campus the idea of what kind of protest should and should not be allowed is an open question.
So I wanted to talk to my colleague David French.
He recently wrote about this exact dilemma and what universities should be doing.
David is an opinion columnist,
and he's a lawyer who spent most of his career defending free speech and religious freedom.
He has defended countless protesters,
and he has been the subject of protest himself.
David, thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks so much for having me, Sarah.
So in your recent column,
you note that universities are meant to be the sponsor of critics,
not the critic.