Amherst College prides itself on being one of the nation's premier liberal arts colleges. We like to think of ourselves as a bastion of the most important academic values. Chief among those is the idea of free speech, and the right of all people within our college community to add to the common discourse without fear of malicious reprisal. Of all the sins that one can commit against the very soul of Amherst, it is hard to imagine a more heinous one than the attempt to intimidate someone who expresses a controversial and unpopular belief. Yet that is allegedly what happened in North Dormitory on Saturday, when a group of drunken students harassed Gregory Campeau '11, the author of a pair of articles in The Indicator that condemned Amherst for what he perceived as a lax approach towards alcohol and sex.

The Amherst Student neither endorses nor condemns Campeau's argument that Amherst is a sinful place. We understand that Campeau used language of moral opprobrium that might have offended a large proportion of the school population. However, as the College's independent student newspaper, we firmly believe in his and any student's right to state his or her position in a respectful, constructive manner-no matter how it might grate upon our own worldviews and sensibilities. Writers like Campeau force the majority to reexamine its values by placing them under scrutiny. The proper way to respond to disagreeable positions is through rhetoric and argumentation, not intimidation. As the College strives to be a paragon of economic, ethnic and cultural diversity, the student body must make room for the multiplicity of thought that accompanies that goal. It is no question that the cowardly, thuggish actions of those who sought to silence Campeau disgraced Amherst's mission.

Last weekend's episode was an attack on not only Campeau, but on everyone at Amherst who values integrity of thought and the right to self-expression without fear. Diversity of opinion must be met with tolerance, and if such diversity is under attack in academia, where it should be strongest, then it is safe nowhere. All students who care about free speech at Amherst must stand in solidarity with Campeau, letting his brutish and intolerant assailants know that their methods and their ilk are not welcome at this school. The administration, for its part, would be well advised to back up its loftily stated commitment to diversity by taking strong action to identify and condemn the perpetrators of this act of intolerance.