Our nation is at a breaking point. On Sept. 10, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was slain on the campus of Utah Valley University while attempting to engage in good-faith debate. Institutes of higher education were once bastions of free speech; places built for the earnest exchange of ideas. Campuses now risk becoming just another place where those courageous enough to express ideas — no matter how unpopular — may pay a price in blood.

How did we get here? As a student at Washington University in St. Louis, I learned to argue hard without hating. I learned to press a case, to hear a rebuttal, and to keep the conversation going — sometimes even after the seminar ended. If an opposing view had merit, I learned that there was no shame in changing my mind.

That was the culture: serious, h

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