It's dogwhistle politics. It's unlikely that anyone in the thread can claim authoritative knowledge on this topic - but it gets aired constantly in the media, so now everyone feels as if they should have a Strong Opinion, and their opinion lands ever-so-neatly on the side endorsing that view.
Universities themselves are never in quite so simple a position as that. Like any large group of people there are conflicts of interest, ambitious power plays, and grandstanding gestures. U of Chicago happens to sit on an end of the political spectrum that allows it this united front. That doesn't mean its day to day is actually more free or open to questioning than a school like Oberlin that aimed to endorse safe spaces and trigger warnings top-down. Any genuine discussion of freedoms vs securities is most likely lost in the scuffle.
Universities themselves are never in quite so simple a position as that. Like any large group of people there are conflicts of interest, ambitious power plays, and grandstanding gestures. U of Chicago happens to sit on an end of the political spectrum that allows it this united front. That doesn't mean its day to day is actually more free or open to questioning than a school like Oberlin that aimed to endorse safe spaces and trigger warnings top-down. Any genuine discussion of freedoms vs securities is most likely lost in the scuffle.