William Dorland, director of the University of Maryland's Honors Program, welcomed students to campus with an email saying, "This year, we learned that it is legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida."

Dorland, who is white, was referring to the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012. The fact that a Florida jury cleared the shooter, George Zimmerman, of all charges in Martin's death did not deter Dorland.

"I didn't regard [his comment] as a political statement," Dorland told Fox News. "I regarded it as trying to stir some student interest in an activity going on on campus." The activity, in question, is a campus appearance by civil rights leader turned climate change activist, Julian Bond.

"I think it's stirring the pot," said Dorland in a defense of his email so clumsy as to be worthy of termination on its own. "I think, factually, the sentence--it may be strained and polemic or something--but it is roughly at least what many people would say was the outcome of the verdict. I'm not going to avow or disavow the position because it doesn't really matter what I think."

For the record, the deeply troubled Martin sucker punched Zimmerman, an Obama supporter and civil rights activist, and was in the process of beating him into unconsciousness when Zimmerman shot him. This the jury learned. What they were not allowed to learn was that Martin had a history of drug use, fighting, and burglary and was high at the time he attacked Zimmerman.

What Dorland thinks does matter as it is indicative of the groupthink that has subverted higher education for at least a generation. If anyone has contacts at the University of Maryland, please tell them that I will be happy to debate Mr. Dorland, or the patsy of their choosing, on this matter.

Jack Cashill is the author of "If I Had A Son: Race, Guns, and the Railroading of George Zimmerman," available October 29 in hardcover, now in Nook or Kindle versions.