Can students and faculty discuss politics?

"Here are some tricky situations that might arise when the classroom conversation turns political, and what to keep in mind," writes Robert O'Neil. He notes:

• A student asks about your political views. Take care in responding to such a query. Be conscious that students of a persuasion different from your own might be offended by an offhand reply ... Moreover, the risks of apparent proselytizing — given the implicit lack of parity between professorial and student opinions in a classroom setting — inhere in any such revelations.
• A student asks you to comment on a colleague's opinions or behavior. [Disparaging] a colleague's scholarship ranks not far below plagiarism on the list of faculty transgressions. ... [Declining] to comment at all in class might often be the wisest course.
• A student wants to know how you feel about a current political crisis. The professor can, and sometimes should, invite students to express such political views in class, although seeking to maintain balance and distancing them from the podium. She should especially avoid demeaning or disparaging a student's view in class — even one that may seem to her to be disingenuous or reprehensible.
• A student asks you to comment about a pending issue that isn't a crisis. [Suggest] a private discussion outside class, noting the risks of displacing the assigned subject matter and escalating existing differences.
• A student wants to know what you "really think" at the end of the semester. If the maxim that "one can never get into trouble speaking in the past tense" is as useful a guide for college professors as for politicians, it may be equally true that one gets into substantially less trouble by speaking one's mind on the final day of class.
• When professors' speech crosses the line. [While] students do not enjoy academic freedom comparable to that of faculty members, they are entitled to a learning environment in which they may freely question and challenge their professors' views on politics or other matters. ... Yet it is the professor's responsibility to ensure that students are free to form and express their own views, however intense and deeply held those of the professor may be.