As the Israel-Gaza war reaches its unfortunate one-year anniversary Monday, I worry that campuses are bracing for another school year of protests, disruptions and poor handling of their raised student voices.

Last year saw university presidents fired, protests turning violent, police crackdowns on campuses, and pro-Palestinian rallies devolving into antisemitism.

But this year, let’s hope colleges have learned some lessons from last year and make efforts to rise above the fray.

I’ve had the pleasure of teaching a class this month at my alma mater Colorado College on political journalism, and we had a robust and constructive discussion of the war in Gaza recently. Strong views were expressed, Jewish rights raised, allegations of genocide debated, complaints about how the administration has handled the whole thing aired, and palpable angst about the lives lost universally shared.

This is what we’re supposed to do at colleges, right? Hear out our students, encourage them to articulate their ideas, create a place where contrary world views can be energetically engaged.

One of the saddest things I heard from one of my students is that there is such a chill on campus now professors are reluctant to encourage and allow such debates about Gaza, for fear of upsetting sensibilities of various proponents.

But if not on campuses, where? The turmoil from last year argues loudly that colleges need to take a clear stand for their basic function — teaching and learning.

I’m hoping that last year’s troubles have encouraged enough self-awareness and self-reflection among our college administrators that we see them fully reembrace their role as bastions of free inquiry rather than advocates for one side or the other.

The University of Chicago, way back in 1967 during the height of Vietnam protests, put forward the extraordinary Kalven principles outlining an ideal of the university as an essential — and neutral — venue for just such free inquiry.

“To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures. A university, if it is to be true to its faith in intellectual inquiry, must embrace, be hospitable to, and encourage the widest diversity of views within its own community. It is a community but only for the limited, albeit great, purposes of teaching and research. It is not a club, it is not a trade association, it is not a lobby.”

Colleges must be the places where we hash out our toughest social issues, offering the wider world fresh perspective and good ideas for ways out of our hardest quandaries. And an institution like Colorado College’s ability to remain neutral as it allows its students the widest possible latitude increases its moral authority to contribute answers to our most pressing problems.

An old Washington colleague of mine, Mark Fisher, put it this way:

“We already have colleges, churches and news organizations that lean overwhelmingly left or right. Too often now, big corporations and small businesses are falling into that split. What sectors will cleave by political persuasion next? Health care? Restaurants? Real estate? Universities can help stop the slide by taking a stand against taking sides.”

Colorado College has had its share of trouble trying to figure out how to handle the anger and hatred that have been unleashed by the war in Gaza.

This summer, the National Jewish Advocacy Center and attorneys representing Jewish students at Colorado College filed a federal complaint alleging that the college administration did nothing to address increased antisemitic harassment and discrimination on campus after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The complaint, one of more than 150 such complaints filed across the country, claimed CC’s Jewish students’ civil rights were violated, because pro-Palestinian events and demonstrations that occurred last year created a “hostile environment” that was never addressed by administrators, despite repeated requests that action be taken.

Last school year, protests by both Palestine supporters and Israel supporters disrupted graduation ceremonies in May, but were in the main peaceful.

Last April, 92 faculty members signed a letter to the outgoing CC president and the incoming interim president complaining about statements sent out by the administration that the professors felt limited student expression.

“… the email sent in the immediate wake of the March 3 student-led library demonstration in solidarity with Palestine defamed student protesters as disruptors, violators, and as people responsible for upsetting ‘some members of our community,'” the letter stated.

“The administration’s emails contradict the very idea of academic freedom that it claims to uphold,” the letter went on. “Academic freedom includes the right to express moral and political criticisms of the policies of nation-states. In some instances, the exercise of academic freedom may include participating in protests that might offend the sensibilities of some members of the community. Participating in protests is an integral part of the experience of a college education.”

For me as an alumnus, however, the letter gave up its moral authority by using language that clearly took a side in the fight. The letter started out saying “We, concerned faculty, are writing with reference to the all-College communications regarding student-led demonstrations against the ongoing genocide of the indigenous people of Palestine.”

I agree with the professors that a college’s role in the face of protests, harassment of Jewish students and disruption of campus business is not to shut down debate, but it is also not to pick sides. It is to keep classrooms open and safe, and to foster civil discourse.

Yes, if necessary, a school should summon police to address violence or vandalism, but the schools like CC that didn’t overreact and whistle police in too quickly generally saw less turmoil on their campuses than other schools.

Though it doesn’t directly apply to private schools like CC, there is a Colorado state law passed recently that vigorously protects students’ right to speak out.

The law “prohibits public institutions of higher education from limiting or restricting student expression in a student forum. ‘Expression’ is defined to mean any lawful verbal or written means by which individuals communicate ideas to one another, including all forms of peaceful assembly, protests, speaking verbally, holding signs, circulating petitions, and distributing written materials.

“A public institution shall not subject a student to disciplinary action as a result of his or her expression. A public institution shall not designate any area on campus as a free speech zone or otherwise create policies that imply that its students’ expressive activities are restricted to a particular area of campus. Additionally, a public institution shall not impose restrictions on the time, place, and manner of student speech unless such restrictions are reasonable, justified without reference to the speech’s content, are narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open ample alternative channels for communication of the information or message.”

That’s a pretty damn clear template for colleges this year, if you ask me.

So on Monday, as we mark the horrific anniversary of the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 and took more than 200 hostages, let’s pray our Colorado schools pay that law heed, and find a way to focus on their sacred mission to teach and learn rather than advocate, stifle or worse — dodge these tough conversations altogether.