ArcaMax

The story still got covered, of course, and the viral images of Click and others who blocked and mocked the media, did little to help their cause. Instead of presenting themselves as advocates for freedom and equality, they looked like the worst stereotypes of thuggish, politically correct liberals that conservatives ever produced.

Click, who later apologized for her actions, was forced to resign from her courtesy appointment at the university's journalism school, although she remains on the university's faculty.

"I think both sides learned from this," said Holt. "Protesters came out the next day and handed out fliers saying this was a teachable moment."

Indeed it was. A lot of universities have been blindsided by the protests that have risen with Twitter speed, partly spurred by the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and long-simmering concerns by black students who feel less than safe or fully included in campus life.

Protests of those problems didn't attract much national attention until the seemingly unthinkable happened: Missouri's black football players, supported by their coach, refused to play anymore games until the university dealt with black student concerns, including a slow response to grievances by the university's president Tim Wolfe, who later resigned, along with Mizzou's chancellor R. Bowen Loftin.

I don't entirely agree with critics who decry the recent wave of campus protests as a disruption in education. I think that in the long run it will prove to be a valuable part of their education. Today's college students are entering the most diverse population America has ever produced. They might as well get comfortable with it.

In that spirit, while the Missouri confrontation boiled, I coincidentally moderated a town hall gathering at the University of Michigan where its president Mark Schlissel was trying to avoid what Mizzou was going through.

Students, faculty and others at the university were invited to microphones to offer their vision of what "diversity at the university should look like."

The robust open-mic program only opened a discussion that needs to continue at Michigan and other campuses. Our feelings about race, gender, ethnicity and other human groupings are shaped by our experiences and all of our experiences are vastly different. We need to talk and listen to one another about those differences and, as one Michigan student put it, "not just fake-listen."

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)

(c) 2015 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.