I'd expect professionals of higher learning to be better educated on reality of the situation!
LOL...
You've not had much experience with University staff or administration, have you...
There is a very strange hierarchy in the "higher education" world. Essentially, it breaks down like this:
--If you are an undergrad, you are seen as an open wallet by the administration. Nothing more.
--If you are a Grad Student, you are seen as an open wallet with the potential to become part of the "elite", if you play the game right.
--If you are a non-tenured professor, you are seen as a financial liability, unless you publish a lot, or write a lot of successful grants, in which case, you are a potential long-term asset.
--If you are tenured, you are expected to be a source of income for the institution, as a grant recipient, a published researcher, or through attracting students through personal fame. If you can do that, you are essentially above reproach, no matter how weird, wacky, mean, or inhumane you are to students.
--If you are a high level administrator, you are essentially a god, unless you REALLY screw up, or the school undergoes some terrible tragedy during your term (crime, drop in enrollment, research-related embarassment, etc)
The key to making it up the ranks in the University system is to NOT rock the boat until you get tenure. This means not going against the standard "ivory tower" sensibilities--supporting bigger government, supporting the evisceration of individual rights, not questioning the prevailing socio-political mythos, etc. The grand irony of Tenured Professorship is that it is essentially a culture of ideological subjugation and conformity...
Once you've got tenure, though, , all bets are off, ideologically. You can essentially say or publish anything you want, and as long as you don't commit a felony or something, you're pretty much set for life.
The idea that institutes of higher learning are somehow these grand forums of free thought, free speech, and open and rational discourse is simply BS. Any sort of contrary speech or press is branded as "hate speech" or "creating a hostile learning environment", or some other such nonsense. There are a FEW professors out there who will support and encourage contrary thinking, but they are few and far between,and are either tenured or "short-timers" who are looking to move soon anyway...
For instance, on my campus (I'm a 44 year old grad student) we have a "free speech zone". It's about 1 acre. The campus is 1600 acres. You have to get permission to use the "free speech zone". To get permission, you must be affiliated with a campus-recognized organization. To be a campus-recognized org, you have to have a full-time instructor sign on as an advisor.
You have jump through all these hoops to use 1/1600th of the campus to exercise Constitutionally protected right! And this is at a STATE university...
Not too "free", huh?
And that is not strange or weird. This practice is pretty standard fare on University campuses nationwide, with a few exceptions (like in TX, where a lawsuit ruled in the State Supreme Court that "free speech zones" were a civil rights violation, and counldn't be enforced...)
Needless to say, the concept of even attempting rational discourse or public education about 2A rights on most college campuses is not easy. And in a state like NC, where there are state Statutes prohibiting ANY carry on campus property, the debate is pretty much closed, except in the theoretical sense, until the General Assembly changes the law. And considering the current State government administration, the college ban isn't going to be lifted anytime soon, short of some miraculous lawsuit...