EDITORIAL: UNLV rally forced, disconnected from Missouri

For all those UNLV students with sensitive ears and expensive demands, here's a trigger warning and a recommendation that you seek a "safe space." You're about to see an opinion you won't agree with.

On a college campus, this might violate a speech code. But the Bill of Rights still trumps all the policies created at universities around the country to stifle free expression and prevent rigorous debate.

On Tuesday, a few hundred UNLV students — less than 1 percent of enrollment — and some faculty led an hours-long protest to express solidarity with minority students at the University of Missouri, who forced high-level administrators to step down over allegations that they didn't respond appropriately to incidents of racial bias.

Protests in Missouri have spawned opportunistic rallies at campuses around the country, some of which have called for the suspension of the First Amendment and demanded that journalists express support for protests before covering them. (Really.) But these rallies, including UNLV's protest, lack an important component: None of these schools are the University of Missouri.

At UNLV, minority undergraduates outnumber whites. And UNLV and other universities really can't do more, under the law, to shield minority students from ideas and expression they could perceive as racist.

So the UNLV protesters demanded more diversity, more ethnic studies, more support for women's studies, more support services, a multicultural center, etc. All of which costs money. Would they be willing to pay higher tuition for such courses and services? And would these classes and programs actually make future UNLV students more tolerant, or just make the school appear more tolerant?

Administrators listened to all of it. Student protest is a time-honored tradition at universities. But Tuesday's rally, like others around the country, appeared forced and inorganic, its demands disconnected. If this is how higher education policy is set, someone had better tell taxpayers and the Board of Regents.