Colleges grappling with balancing free speech, safety

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — When Carl Valentine dropped off his daughter at the University of Virginia, he had some important advice for the college freshman: Don’t forget that you are a minority.

“She has to be vigilant of that and be concerned about that, always know her surroundings, just be cautious, just be extremely cautious,” said Valentine, 57, who is African-American. A retired military officer, he now works at the Defense Department.

As classes begin at colleges and universities across the country, some parents are questioning if their children will be safe on campus in the wake of last weekend’s violent white nationalist protest here. School administrators, meanwhile, are grappling with how to balance students’ physical safety with free speech.

Friday was move-in day at the University of Virginia, and students and their parents unloaded cars and carried suitcases, blankets, lamps, fans and other belongings into freshmen dormitories. Student volunteers, wearing orange university T-shirts, distributed water bottles and led freshmen on short tours of the university grounds.

But along with the usual moving-in scene, there were signs of the tragic events of last weekend, when white nationalists staged a nighttime march through campus holding torches and shouting racist slogans. Things got worse the following day, when a man said to harbor admiration for Nazis drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 others.

Flags flew at half-staff outside the university’s Rotunda, and a nearby statue of founder Thomas Jefferson was stained with wax from a candlelight vigil by thousands of students and city residents in a bid to unite and heal. Some student dormitories had signs on doors reading, “No Home for Hate Here.”

In an address to students and families on Friday, UVA President Teresa Sullivan welcomed “every person of every race, every gender, every national origin, every religious belief, every orientation and every other human variation.” Afterward, parents asked university administrators tough questions about the gun policy on campus and the likelihood of similar violence in the future.

For Valentine, of Yorktown, Virginia, the unrest brought back painful memories of when, as a young boy, he couldn’t enter government buildings or movie theaters through the front door because of racial discrimination. “We’ve come a long way, but still a long way to go for equality,” he said.

His daughter Malia Valentine, an 18-year-old premed student, is more optimistic. “It was scary what happened, but I think that we as a community will stand together in unity and we’ll be fine,” she said.