Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth defended college "safe spaces" in a recent New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
op-ed, arguing that while the concept of a safe space can be taken too far, "it still underlies the university’s primary obligations," and that schools should prioritize them, in order to "promote intellectual diversity."
Roth maintains that it is a school’s priority to take the "conscious steps to protect and nurture students emotionally as well as physically should be welcome" in order to prevent perpetuating "environments where the entitled continue to dominate those around them and students never learn how to build a more equitable, inclusive community."
"We must promote intellectual diversity in a context in which people can feel safe enough to challenge one another," says the university president. "Students should be able to participate in argument and inquiry without the threat of harassment or intimidation."
In his op-ed, the university president goes on to acknowledge critics of safe spaces, describing them as people who "claim to worry about the preservation of free speech on campus," as well as the likelihood of safe spaces encouraging "the isolation of groups of students from questions that might take them outside their comfort zones."