On April 20, Middlebury College political science department chairman Bert Johnson penned an apology on the school’s online student periodical in which he confesses a “mistake.” Professor Johnson’s supposed impropriety stems from his having invited social scientist Charles Murray to Middlebury. Seriously. Mr. Murray was forcefully driven from the school by a group of mobsters who have zero appetite for tolerance. But instead of reprimanding the rioters and anti-free speech zealots, Johnson is ensuring that the school remains a liberal sanctuary and safe place for students who are in need of coddling. He says:

> I apologized to my departmental colleagues for this closed decisionmaking [sic] process, and I apologize now to the broader Middlebury community. The short amount of time between when the event became public and when it occurred gave all of us scant opportunity to listen to and understand alternative points of view. Most importantly, and to my deep regret, it contributed to a feeling of voicelessness that many already experience on this campus, and it contributed to the very real pain that many people — particularly people of color — have felt as a result of this event.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Mr. Johnson has since said on Twitter that he intended merely to extend good will, not to walk back his commitment to free speech. And Mr. Johnson is a unicorn on campus for his research on why campaign-spending limits are less effective than allowing more spending and more political speech. Yet his letter does read like a hostage confession to students who had screamed, punched fire alarms and jumped on cars.” This is exactly the type of disingenuous response columnist Dennis Prager is referring to in his latest piece, “The Cowards of Academia.”

There is a growing trend among leftist professors to co-sign missives supposedly in support of free speech. But as Prager warns, “[N]ext time you read a statement by some professors — virtually all of whom, remember, have been silent for decades — on behalf of allowing opinions other than their own to be expressed on their campuses, take it with a large grain of salt. It’s primarily because some alumni are finally withholding funds from their closed-minded alma maters, or because the students they have produced have become so violent even the mainstream media can’t ignore it.”

Johnson and the school he represents could have sent a strong message by vehemently condemning the rioters and welcoming additional conservative speakers. They didn’t. That makes them equally responsible for what happened to Mr. Murray. It’s an amazing twist in an already deeply perturbing story.