Photo: Howard Korn

Last spring, Beloit College found itself at a crossroads. Prospective students and their parents were growing increasingly skeptical that a liberal-arts education, the core academic offering at this private college in Wisconsin, was worth the investment. Enrollment had dropped by nearly 25 percent over a decade.

Beloit's new president, Eric Boynton, had some big decisions to make. But instead of cutting programs, he decided to repackage the college’s curriculum—and bet big on liberal arts and the humanities.

For public colleges and universities in Texas, Jan. 1 isn’t just the start of the new year. It’s also the day the state’s anti–diversity, equity, and inclusion bill, SB 17, will go into effect—a development that many institutions have spent months preparing for.

But that preparation varies greatly depending on the institution. The result is a messy patchwork of campus policies, procedures, and approaches designed to ensure compliance with the new bill signed by Governor Greg Abbott in June.

The war in Gaza has fueled debate about free speech on campuses, leading to protests, a congressional hearing, and high-profile resignations. But in her class on free speech and censorship at the University of Pennsylvania, Sophia Rosenfeld has found students with strong opinions who are eager to disagree with one another without doing harm.

In this audio essay, Rosenfeld shares a model for engaging in tough conversations for anyone looking to have thoughtful discussions about some of the most fraught issues of our era.