STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The new school year includes new campus protests. The college presidents deciding how to respond include Michael Roth, who leads Wesleyan University in Connecticut, the same school he once attended in the 1970s.
MICHAEL ROTH: Wesleyan changed my life when I was a young person. And being able to come back here as president is a fantasy I never entertained, actually.
INSKEEP: Were there protests on campus in the '70s?
ROTH: Oh (laughter). The students remind me all the time that I was part of an occupation of the president's office.
INSKEEP: Protesters back then demanded that the university divest from South Africa during its time of segregation - or apartheid. These days, students demand the university sell investments in companies that do business with Israel. Michael Roth disagrees with them.
ROTH: So one of the very thoughtful students in the spring asked me, so do you think you were wrong then? I said I probably was wrong then, now in retrospect.
INSKEEP: Instead of protesting their school, he would rather that students try to change their government, which is backing Israel. Last spring, pro-Palestinian protesters set up a camp at Wesleyan. The university eventually promised them a chance to address a committee of its board. Pro-Israel students will get their own chance to speak. And Michael Roth has written an essay for The New York Times arguing that for all the discomfort, he would like to see more politics on campus, not less.
ROTH: On the whole, these were peaceful protests, and it was a peaceful protest at Wesleyan.
INSKEEP: Just so I'm clear on this - we saw a letter from May in which you referred to vandalism at Wesleyan. Was there vandalism?
ROTH: Yes. But these were people who said they were not involved in the encampment (laughter).
INSKEEP: OK.
ROTH: There was a splinter group, and we contacted the police about that.
INSKEEP: Were there Jewish students or pro-Israel students who felt they were obstructed from going about campus or who felt threatened in any way?
ROTH: As a Jewish president who is very explicit about my own Jewish identity, I have my connections to those communities on campus. And some of them felt beleaguered, I think is the right word. And I had the groups over to my house and met with them elsewhere to talk about the fact that they may find and did find some of the slogans used to be offensive. But these were slogans not aimed at discriminating against them as Jews, but aimed at making a political point with which they should disagree. I disagree. But this was speech that would be protected.
INSKEEP: So you wrote in The New York Times, I don't want less politics on campus - I want more politics on campus. What do you mean?
ROTH: Well, I've been struck all summer, Steve, when I talked to my colleague presidents that many of them were very concerned about how to protect the campus against protests this fall, which I understand at a few places around the country last spring, they were violent. What I have been arguing as often as I can, to as many people as I can, that we should be activating the political energies of our students so that they go out there and work on the elections. I mean, people have different views of these elections, but everyone knows they're consequential. And so we offer grants. If you want to go travel to a swing state and work for the candidate of your choice, or you want to work for an organization that's supporting a particular issue, we will help you do that.
INSKEEP: Some universities - Harvard comes to mind - have taken a somewhat related step of saying, we want the university as an institution to opt out of the political system. Or rather we don't want to be forced to announce our opinions of political issues. We want to stay out of it. Did you do that at Wesleyan?
ROTH: Oh, no. On the contrary, these institutions were just pricing in a Trump victory. And they were afraid of speaking out because they will get punished in the wave of retribution that candidate Trump has promised, and that Vance has promised, to universities. So this sudden call for neutrality in the spring I found an abdication of responsibility. University presidents and deans should be contributing to the conversation of the moment, not because they're going to have people follow them - on the contrary, students always object to anything I say. No matter how reasonable it is, Steve, they're going to oppose me (laughter).
INSKEEP: I'm sure everything you say is perfectly reasonable. Please, go on, of course.
ROTH: No, you know, I take a stand, and they're going to oppose me. And that doesn't mean that in a classroom, you should indoctrinate your students. On the contrary, I think that's wrong. But I think we should be actually helping the students participate in a conversation around the big issues by participating in the conversation ourselves.
INSKEEP: Michael Roth is the president of Wesleyan University. Mr. President, thanks so much.
ROTH: It's my pleasure, Steve. Nice to talk with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT'S "ALL IS VIOLENT, ALL IS BRIGHT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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