Universities are meant to challenge students. They should make students open their minds to new ways of thinking about art, life, politics, war, economics and more. They should teach students how to stand up for their personal beliefs and be able to debate for or against certain ideas.
Most of the time, Hofstra gets this right. But after physical trigger warning signs were put up around campus last week for the Clothesline Project, I couldn’t help but think that my campus was turning into another Oberlin College, which censors their professors and academic environment by requiring professors to post trigger warnings on their syllabi.
The practice of trigger warnings began on blogs dealing with topics such as violence against women and post-traumatic stress disorder. I acknowledge that trigger warnings are relatively harmless and can be beneficial to those browsing the web; however, it can be assumed that somebody seeking out blogs on such topics should know what to expect beforehand.
In an academic environment, the warnings are an entirely different entity, and at best should be considered silly. By the time students arrive at college, they’ve been exposed to violence and sex in movies, on TV, the Internet and even on the news. It’s hard to believe any material shown in a classroom or displayed on campus would truly shock any college-aged person.
Putting up physical signs warning against triggering material is exactly the type of action that causes older generations to label us as cry babies. This is how college campuses become known as oversensitive echo chambers for liberal ideas that refuse to be challenged by outside opinions.
Trigger warnings on college campuses may have begun with good intentions, but have escalated too far. For example, college students are now pushing for censorship in college courses that cover F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” for portraying misogyny and physical violence against women.
Students are also demanding that they be allowed to opt-out without consequence if the material covered will make them uncomfortable. How would professors be able to teach when at any given moment students could opt-out without any repercussions?
This is not to imply that students shouldn’t be able to complain about material shown or discussed or that PTSD isn’t a serious condition. Instead, it is to show that trigger warnings are coddling and disruptive to an environment that is meant to give you the skills and mindset necessary to enter the real world, which isn’t going to give you a physical warning every time sensitive material may appear.
Overprotection can be as harmful as not protecting at all sometimes, and getting students accustomed to niceties such as physical trigger warnings on campus is no way to prepare them for life after college.
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