There's a lot here, and a lot of it wrong.

I'll start with the numbered points you addressed.

You write: "(1) I do not believe Melissa advocated physical violence against the “journalist,” but rather, asked for some “muscle” to create a physical barrier to keep the paparazzo-style journalist out of a “Safe Space” temporarily established by students and faculty."

That is advocating physical violence. While the laws vary by state, "battery" generally means any physical contact that a reasonble person would find offensive. Yes, that includes placing unwanted hands on someone's personal effects, such as a camera. It also applies to physically removing someone from a place he has the right to be.

The students and faculty, as they are not administrators, do not have the right to cordon off public property on the university. Mark Schierbecker (the student reporter) had as much right to be there as click the other students.

The students, if they objected to Schierbecker's presence, they had the right to refuse to talk to him. They could have told him to fuck off, whatever they wanted. They did not have the right to order him off the area or force him off.

You wrote: "(2) and (3): Journalists had as much a right to be on the quad as concerned students and Dr. Click, but only insofar as the university permitted the assembly (which they did). The students had a right to peaceably assemble and not speak to journalists."

Exactly. The University allowed the assembly, but they did not allow Concerned Student to cordon off an area of the quad, to exclude anyone.

You wrote: "(4) Did Melissa rely on her authority as a professor to deny journalists their “rights?” Perhaps, I don’t know, this one is really hard to figure out. If I protest with students on the quad against weapons on campus, do I do so as a professor or citizen? There may be a legal definition here that settles the issue, again, I’m ignorant about this one."

Click did not have the authority to exclude anyone from the quad. And yes, she did violate the students' rights.

You wrote: "And Melissa’s humanness, finally, brings me to your claim that her behaviors on that day represent “moral failures” that were “profound.” This implies not simply that Melissa did a “bad thing,” but that she is a “bad person.”"

She is a bad person. She persuaded students that they have the right to claim sections of public property for themselves, and forcibly remove anyone they don't want in "their" space.

Such advice will quickly run them afoul of the law should they keep doing this.

If they want privacy, and not to have their pictures taken, they should have retreated to their dorm rooms. In public areas, there is no right to either of those things.