One of the most influential presidents of the University of California, Clark Kerr, was fired in 1966 shortly after convincing the Regents to lift the ban on political demonstrations on UC campuses. Despite numerous Supreme Court decisions articulating broad protections for free speech that include public college and university campuses, the battle Kerr fought on behalf of free speech and academic freedom continues to this day. In this article, the author discusses how the University of California, Irvine, with support from the Difficult Dialogues program, has launched a wide-ranging, multidisciplinary initiative, "Imagining the Future," aimed at fostering religious, ethnic, and political tolerance, despite an increasingly politicized campus since 9/11. (Contains 2 online resources and 4 resources.)