It isn't that they're terrified of their own students, but rather that the free expression things are easier to just surrender on instead of having it potential

It isn't that they're terrified of their own students, but rather that the free expression things are easier to just surrender on instead of having it potentially blow up, since usually there isn't enough opposing sentiment (either because students don't want to risk their careers or because they're just busy trying to move on to paying back their loans). I've noticed similar behavior at my own university over the years. There are always several emails from the university president and the mental health office promising assistance when anything even slightly likely to matter to some of the student body happens anywhere in the world. IIRC some time ago they sent out an email to the entire student body about something scrawled on the wall of a bathroom stall. Yet it took a lot of protesting and boycotting to get fair action taken back when Covid was just getting started (IIRC they tried to kick everyone out of the dorms without refunds and without enough time to arrange for alternative housing, which was especially bad given the large international student body and lack of clarity on student visa handling at the time). Similarly, the graduate student union has been gradually dialing up its activism just to get the university to pay enough to keep up with local cost of living with no acknowledgement from the university.