Instead of encouraging students to explore different ideas and to engage their minds, this university wants to put blinders on its students. Rather than teaching kids how to avoid offending someone, schools should teach students how to engage people they disagree with in meaningful and thoughtful dialogue. If you focus on not offending other people, then you shy away from bringing challenging ideas to the attention of others and society stagnates as a result. Schools worry too much about making everyone feel welcome by attempting to force students to not say anything that might offend other students. That's the wrong approach to take.
...it seems like the antithesis of what a public university ought to be doing... Turning the filters up to the point when Wikipedia pages are blocked is insane. That site is a go to resource for, well, everyone, but probably especially for students. And the ban on political activism and traffic suggests NIU is turning a blind-eye to the important role that universities have always played in political thought and activism.
LINK: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140821/17411428283/university-bans-social-media-political-content-wikipedia-pages-dorm-wifi.shtml