Actual progress

I start every semester by explaining what speech codes are, that our campus has them, and that they should consider my classroom as much a free speech zone as the small outdoor area designated by the campus administration.  I also tell them that, if I offend any single one of them, that that individual should come to me and let me know, and that I will figure out how to push everyone else's buttons so that the offended individual doesn't feel singled out. 

I think this is one of the main reasons that I've never had a single student in five years of teaching complain about being offended: they know I don't mean to.  

That observation about student complaints was a serious one.  As a part timer, or adjunct professor, I don't have the same protection against getting fired as my full-time, tenured colleagues.  However, that may be starting to change.

The FIRE reports that, more and more, colleges are looking toward extending the same academic freedom protections to adjuncts that they extend to their full professors.   

That would be some real progress.  I'll keep an eye on developments.  If it comes to something real happening, I won't be so nervous about being able to keep my job with my political opinions being a full one-eighty away from my colleagues'.