An open environment must be paired with everyday safeguards that work quietly and keep the wrong people out. Higher education does not have to choose between being open and being safe.

The Justice Department backed a lawsuit to end grants reserved for colleges where at least a quarter of undergraduates are Hispanic, calling the program an unconstitutional advantage based on race or ethnicity. Congress created the grants in 1998 to address lower enrollment and graduation rates among Latino students.

A coalition of more than 30 privacy and civil rights groups is calling on U.S. universities to dismantle campus surveillance and data collection in order to protect student protesters from government retaliation.