Few concepts in academe have been dissected, debated, mocked, and defended in recent months as much as the "safe space." The term has cropped up repeatedly in campus protests, and as the discussion has become more polarized, the safe space has become a political football — social-media grist that offers each side a chance to see what it wants to see. Observers inside and outside academe often seem to talk past one another: Either safe spaces are essential sanctuaries for members of historically marginalized groups, or they reflect a troubling desire to escape the rigorous intellectual inquiry that college should be all about.