The problem here is that you’re falling into the same trap (for a different reason) as some conservatives who complain about colleges and universities.
Too many people in the United States, often conservatives, ridicule or dismiss a lot of what goes on at colleges and universities because it’s not the “real world,” because it allegedly doesn’t prepare students for the “real world,” etc. etc.
As someone who teaches at a university, i think that’s a load of bullshit. Universities are full of the same problems and challenges and opportunities as the so-called “real world.”
Have to take a class that you don’t want to take, in order to fulfill your graduation requirements? Bad luck. In the “real world” there will be plenty of times when you have to do things that you don’t want to do.
Don’t like the fact that you’re required to attend a certain number of class meetings in order to pass the course? Suck it up, crybaby. In the “real world,” your boss is going to expect you to turn up if you want that paycheck.
Think it’s unfair that your grade was penalized for handing your term paper in late? Well, there are similar consequences in the “real world.”
Don’t like the fact that people don’t share your political views, or support people that you dislike? Again, deal with it. That’s how the “real world” works, and we should be preparing students for that in our colleges and universities.
That doesn’t mean that we encourage abuse or hate speech or incivility. We should be creating an environment where everyone recognizes that differences of opinions and ideology and politics and practices exist, where we can discuss these things rationally, and where we accept that we won’t always change one another’s minds.
I do think it’s appropriate for universities, in some settings, to discourage certain types of expression—even if such expression is not formally or legally banned—because some types of expression actually undermine the rational discussion and thoughtful exchange of ideas that universities are supposed to foster. But the default position should be to encourage an airing of views, and to confront unpleasant or offensive ideas and expressions by demonstrating why they are ignorant or offensive or whatever, rather than yelling at people to just shut up already.
I understand that i make this observation as someone who has no real personal experience of being part of a marginalized group. As a straight, white, middle-class, well-educated man, i’m pretty much immune to feeling threatened or degraded by insults. There is nothing you can call me that will affect me the way that “nigger” affects a black person, or “faggot” affects a gay person, or whatever. Because of that, it’s easy for me to say that people need to value open dialog over the idea of shutting down speech that makes them uncomfortable.
And some of my friends on the left argue that the sort of call that i’m making here, for free and open speech, actually serves to maintain current social and political hierarchies, and keep marginalized groups like racial minorities and women and LGBT people subordinated. I understand why they say this, and i find some of their arguments compelling. It’s easy for me to say that black students at Yale (to take a recent case) should not call for professors who defend the wearing of racially insensitive Halloween costumes to resign. I think we need to respect and acknowledge that seeing stuff like this can be genuinely upsetting for people who already feel like they get a raw deal in society, from police, for employers, from fellow students, etc., etc.
But for me, it’s going too far to suggest, as quite a few seem to be doing these days, that you have a right not to be exposed to any speech or any opinion that you find upsetting or offensive or inappropriate. And while colleges and universities do have an obligation to ensure the safety of their students, failing to delete a Trump chalking on a sidewalk is not an abrogation of that responsibility.