Amid a sea of “microaggressions” and “trigger warnings” that are teaching college students to run from any word or thought that might be the least bit unsettling, one school is trying to stem the tide by condemning the practice.
American University’s faculty senate passed a resolution in early September that declared an adherence to free speech and diversity of ideas, suggesting trigger warnings subverted critical thought. “Trigger warnings,” if you’re lucky enough not to have heard of them, are bits of text posted on classroom syllabi informing students that the material they are about to read might present an opposing view point or remind them of something bad that happened to them at some point in their lives.
“As laws and individual sensitivities may seek to restrict, label, warn or exclude specific content, the academy must stand firm as a place that is open to diverse ideas and free expression,” the resolution states. “These are standards and principles that American University will not compromise.”
The resolution also states that professors were not being banned from providing trigger warnings, but that the faculty would not endorse them, as such labels give students the opinion that “it as an option to ‘opt out’ of engaging with texts or concepts, or otherwise not participating in intellectual inquiries.”
The faculty senate wanted to ensure professors knew that “shielding students from controversial material will deter them from becoming critical thinkers and responsible citizens.”
Indeed, as Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt noted in the Atlantic last month, cognitive behavior therapy suggests that in order to overcome one’s fear or anxiety, one must confront it. “Trigger warnings” take the opposite approach, coddling students and encouraging them to hide from everything they find objectionable. This won’t result in stronger students; it will result in weaker ones.
American University has the right idea.
