UCLA Law School’s problems are higher education’s problems. Do campus leaders care that students are not interested in persuasion, or even in hearing what people they disagree with have to say?

UCLA Law School’s problems are higher education’s problems. Do campus leaders care that students are not interested in persuasion, or even in hearing what people they disagree with have to say?

By Tal Fortgang ‘17 May 27, 2026 6 min read

The protests that greeted Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival a UCLA School of Law in April were not surprising. Law students, especially at highly ranked schools like UCLA, have become notoriously intolerant of disfavored speakers coming to campus — and few institutions are quite as polarizing as DHS in the “Abolish ICE” era. It was striking, however, that the students who organized the interruptions of Percival’s presentation — with heckling, hacking coughs, cellphones, and the occasional profanity — did exactly what “snowflake” students have been ridiculed and denounced for doing when encountering someone they don’t agree with.

Read More