A Climate of Hate

So far as I can tell, most professors try to have an impact on students' ideas and thinking processes; that's one of the reasons we do these jobs. Sometimes, though, as we try to have an impact on our students, professors can be overwhelming, overbearing, and overpowering. Sometimes it is explicit and the result of being control freaks; sometimes it is just because professors operate from a position of authority, controlling the students' grades.

But we should draw the line before we get to the climate of fear and hate that has been created in some classrooms at Columbia University:

"Professorial power is being abused," said Ariel Beery, a senior who is student president in the School of General Studies, but stresses he's speaking only for himself. "Students are being bullied because of their identities, ideologies, religions and national origins," Beery said.

When polemics begin to dominate scholarly inquiry, we have good cause to worry about the quality of education the students receive at such institutions.
Link from Ben and Clive (President of SAFS, the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship).
Also see this.