In colleges and universities, notably in the USA, speech codes and regulations designed to suppress unacceptable ideas and utterances had been adopted by 1993, despite legal protection supposedly accorded to free speech. The prime concern has been to censor any utterance suggesting potential bias or prejudice, including offensive or insensitive statements about any class of citizens. Such regulations have been reinforced by vigilante groups of students resulting in seizure and destruction of newspapers, or theft of files.
This is an unprecedented effort to control free speech. There is no conception of the mission of a university; there is nothing about lively debate or discussion, just a list of sanctions and punishments for offences. It puts jokes and graffiti in the same category as sexual assault. Academics have the right to offend one another and to make others feel uncomfortable.