The debate about whether students are being insufficiently challenged in terms of opinions and beliefs appears to be a growing one, and it ties into the debate

The debate about whether students are being insufficiently challenged in terms of opinions and beliefs appears to be a growing one, and it ties into the debate on academic freedom on college campuses that has existed since at least the 1800s. It's somewhat distinct though from the more generalized debate about Free Speech in overall society, and I have to wonder in this case if The Economist (and many others) aren't picking the wrong correlation here. While the exact reasoning changes over the decades, "so and so professor should be pressured/fired for saying something I don't like" remains constant and the answer was the tenure system. I think the modern decline of tenure positions is actually much more of the actual, root cause of any problems we're seeing right now. Overall popular opinions are always in flux and new trends come and go, and right now extreme sensitivity towards anything that might make someone uncomfortable seems to enjoy popular support. But just like with previous trends, if a professor had tenure they'd be equally free to argue back as hard as they wished and tell students to either successfully convince the professor, shape up, or suck eggs. It's true that in many cases economic pressure on some colleges have become heavier over the years as public funding has evaporated, but economic pressure is still economic pressure and has always existed with the same natural result. Money talks. Counteracting that natural trend with mechanisms like tenure is much more important and lastingly useful then trying to apply bandaids to any particular trend of the day. With a strong basic framework ensuring that debate can continue even in the face of popular consensus, there is a much higher chance that the marketplace of ideas will succeed and prevent any permanent fall into a local minima. It's somewhat disappointing that The Economist of all places would fail to explore this, with even the very word "tenure" not showing up at all.