Ripon College president Zach Messitte:

It’s October and the leaves are changing colors on college campuses across Wisconsin and the nation. There are countless exams, papers and events before graduation finally arrives in the spring. But it’s already time to start thinking about a commencement speaker. And the decision about who to invite has been too often fraught recently with political peril as potential speakers have failed invisible campus litmus tests. But the ground could be shifting thanks to some choice remarks from an unlikely supporter of the conservative cause.

It’s no secret that college campuses lean left politically. Just as surveys find the U.S. military is more Republican, Hollywood is more Democratic and Wall Street skews right, poll after poll also finds a solid majority of professors self-identify as “liberals.” By contrast, less than 20% of faculty nationwide classify themselves as “conservative.” The breakdown slants away from the near parity of political opinion in American society. Too often, the default position in higher education is to invite speakers who echo our own opinions.

But President Barack Obama has wisely opened a dialogue about diversity of political opinion on campuses in a way that has surprised even his most ardent supporters. Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, last month the president put his finger on a real problem: College campuses just don’t do a very good job at making sure students hear the conservative side of the argument.

Obama told the audience: “Sometimes there are folks on college campuses who are liberal, and maybe even agree with me on a bunch of issues, who sometimes aren’t listening to the other side, and that’s a problem, too.” The president continued, “Anybody who comes to speak to you and you disagree with, you should have an argument with them. But you shouldn’t silence them by saying, ‘You can’t come because I’m too sensitive to hear what you have to say.’ That’s not the way we learn, either.”

Our campus recently has hosted an array of politicians, academics and journalists from the “right” (Newt Gingrich, Dinesh D’Souza, Ron Johnson) and the “left” (Tom Barrett, Hanna Rosin, Mark Shields). And prior to every visit, a predictable batch of emails, phone calls or letters pour in from alumni, parents, students and community members that begin with something like, “How could you possibly invite…? They don’t stand for my values….” And the communication often concludes along the lines, “If this is the direction the college is going, then don’t count on me for any further donations!”

Dissent, civil discourse and a real exchange of ideas are part of the special mix of what makes American higher education, and the liberal arts in particular, the envy of the world. Critical thinking and understanding the other side of an argument are valuable skills in the new global marketplace, as much in demand in China as they are in the United States.

But the commencement address still poses a special problem. There are some who say, do no harm and offend no one. There is the lesson of the apocryphal story of basketball star Michael Jordan, who, when asked to endorse the Democratic mayor of Charlotte, N.C., in a U.S. Senate race against Republican Jesse Helms in 1990 famously declined because, well, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.” The message holds true for colleges and universities: both Democrats and Republicans make annual fund gifts, too, so why alienate anyone?

This do-no-harm trend has been reinforced in recent years as student and faculty protests have knocked down invited graduation honorees with pronounced (and usually more conservative) political opinions. Current Republican presidential candidate, then just a world-famous neurosurgeon, Ben Carson withdrew as the speaker at Johns Hopkins University in 2013 over campus protests about comments he had made about gay marriage. International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde chose not to speak at Smith College after student objections to the IMF’s economic policies. And Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state pulled out from a graduation talk at Rutgers University after a faculty-led outcry over her role in the Iraq War.

Obama is right on target by emphasizing that the views of his Republican political foes should be given a stronger voice on campus. Colleges and universities need to do a better job making sure that thoughtful conservative opinions are heard at commencement and during the academic year. Diversity of opinion leads to more informed students and citizens, ones who may disagree with each other, yet with an honest appreciation of the other side of the argument. Respect for the opposition is how compromise and cooperation are born. The nation could use a little more of both right now.

Read the comments, and you will see that “diversity of opinion” degenerates rapidly into name-calling attacks. So much for the First Amendment.