As someone who thinks that higher education should have freedom to choose, had it been me in that situation, I may have been a bit more forceful and active in the weeks that preceded my visit. It might be that I can't fully grasp how dangerous is to go against conservative people in the South of the USA or is because I don't have the same concerns about my general safety as the author did.

  I think we can't really change how people think or their beliefs with just a speech, but we can make a powerful statement for those that might need to hear it, to show that the loudest faction it’s not necessarly the bigger.

  Quoting the author: "these students were, for the most part, old enough to vote and go to war” so to me it seems ridiculous that some parents tried to shelter them from things like female friendship between two young adults or sex. 

  Past a certain age you can't really protect a young person from the world but rather you hope for them to have judgement to face it.