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Colleges need to do a better job of promoting tolerance of diverse ideas, said Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, in a Harvard University commencement address Thursday, The Boston Globe reported. Bloomberg cited incidents in which students have questioned selections of commencement speakers or shouted down speakers on campus, and noted that this problem goes beyond campus as well. “Tolerance for other people’s ideas and the freedom to express your own are ... perpetually vulnerable to the tyrannical tendencies of monarchs, mobs, and majorities, and lately we’ve seen those tendencies manifest themselves too often, both on college campuses and in our society," he said. Bloomberg added that “a liberal arts education must not be the art of liberalism."
Some Harvard students this spring questioned whether Bloomberg should be invited to speak. They cited the "stop and frisk" police tactic used in New York City while he was mayor. But many other students -- including some who questioned the tactic -- defended his right to speak.
