Remember when college classes were about having open discussions about a wide range of topics?

There was a civil discourse as students and professors would defend their stance on the subject at hand. This was an opportunity to see issues from different sides and perhaps find common ground at the end of class.

It was higher learning at its best, but unfortunately, those days are long gone. It seems college campuses today are more about creating safe spaces and coddling students.

The latest example of college administrators failing in their duties to prepare students for the real world and adding another nail in the coffin for free speech occurred at Emory University in Atlanta. Last week, students awoke to find their campus had been “vandalized” by someone who wrote messages in chalk supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Among the “scandalous” messages strewn across campus were: “Trump,” “Trump 2016,” “Vote Trump 2016,” “Build a Wall,” and “Accept the inevitable Donald Trump 2016.”

Rather than responding with chalk messages of their own supporting Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton or the candidate of their own choice, a group of students demanded a meeting with Jim Wagner, the university’s president. Among the concerns the students raised during their meeting with Wagner was that the Trump messages were a threat to their safety and not just a political speech.

Groups like the Emory Chapter of the NAACP, Young Democrats of Emory, Freedom at Emory, LatinAction, Emory University Young Democratic Socialists and Multi-ethnic racial group at Emory took to Facebook to expand on the alleged threat to the Emory campus created by the Trump messages.

“… Donald Trump is no longer a joke. Supporting him, repeating his catchphrases, and arguing for his plausibility as the leader of the free world has become a threat to our democracy and an implicit attack on the Muslin, Latinx[o], Black, and other communities at Emory and across the country. This is not political expression; this is hate speech.”

Tagging a candidate endorsement with a derogatory buzzword changes nothing. “Hate speech” or not, it’s still free speech.

Wagner, with his tail firmly tucked between his legs, sent a campus-wide email that all but legitimized the notion that any student, faculty or staff member who supports Trump is contributing to making Emory an uncomfortable and unsafe campus.

“After meeting with our students, I cannot dismiss their expression of feelings and concern as motivated only by political preference or over-sensitivity. Instead, the students with whom I spoke heard a message, not about political process or candidate choice, but instead about values regarding diversity and respect that clash with Emory’s own.”

Emory students can say goodbye to the freedom of speech, except if the messages aren’t from Trump supporters. Emory student Josh Goodman appeared on Wednesday’s O’Reilly Factor on Fox News and said the pro-Trump messages weren’t the only ones to appear in that part of the campus this year.

Goodman said Wagner had no problem with the messages supporting Sanders or the Black Lives Matter movement. A disappointing double standard from the leader of a university because the First Amendment was written to protect everyone’s freedom, not just the right to express views you side with.

As a result of this action, college presidents now have an opportunity to return real debate to their campus. Instead of getting both sides together in a public forum and talking through the issues, Wagner took the easy way out and cowed to the demands of the squeaky wheel.

Ironically, the ones so opposed to Trump followed his lead and yelled louder than the opposition to get what they wanted.

The Sanford Herald