Free marketplace of ideas

...is what the university loves to pride itself as being. What happens when the ivory towers of the West tire of the quest for Truth and marriage to Reason? This.

Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu says he will not accept an invitation to speak at the University of St. Thomas unless a demoted professor is reinstated as director of the university's peace and justice studies program.

"I will make an acceptance on my part dependent on your reinstatement and the clearing of your file," the Anglican archbishop wrote to Cris Toffolo, who was dismissed from her position on Aug. 1 following a dispute over whether Tutu should be invited to speak at the St. Paul campus.

Academic speaking engagements as political ping-pong, or as the Chinese say, ping-pong.