There are valid objections to that claim, no question. But students asserting this in their defense nevertheless has a great deal of power, because universities still want to be bastions of free speech. It is close to the core of the self-image of university and college faculty members (and an awful lot of the administrators, too), even when the reality falls short of that ideal. So these words make a very strong moral argument in context, and might succeed in building on-campus support where other arguments wouldn't.
