Staff, Faculty, Administration and Students Following today's campus wide meeting, SGA feels that there are multiple misconceptions as to what we are protesting and what our goals are. In the effort of promoting clear communication and transparency, we feel it is important we share our concerns with you all as a part of this family we call Heritage University. SGA is not protesting major credit requirements or the changes being made. We are not protesting the work faculty are doing to change requirements. What our protest is about: 1.…
University students who insist on censorship by a college administration when a topic, issue or idea causes them emotional distress, effectively denies all who participate in the academic setting the basic right of freedom of speech in a venue that should be open to free exchanges of ideas. To take away topics that give them emotional stress, students have come up with a solution to the issue, trigger warnings. According to Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s The Coddling of the American Mind, trigger warnings are alerts for professors to give their students if trauma-trigging material is going to be taught (Haidt and Lukianoff 44). These trigger warnings fall under the category microagressions.…
There is a moral panic gripping the nation. Like most moral panics, it does involve material that could imaginably offend some sensibilities. However, the moral panic is not really about the material directly. Instead, the moral panic is about moral panic, specifically, on college campuses. Trigger warnings in college classrooms, do not restrict speech, they create it.…
Why Trigger Warnings can not be Implemented In recent discussions of trigger warnings, a controversial issue has been whether college and universities should enforce this movement that prevent students from being exposed to important academic content. A trigger warning is, according to the article The Coddling of the Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, “Alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause a strong emotional response” (Haidt, Lukianoff). These alerts forewarn students who have experienced a trauma, i.e. rape, abuse, race, or so forth about course material that might include any of them. Trigger warnings can not be implemented because most students do not realize how this movement will…
In recent discussions of trigger warnings-“alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause a strong emotional response”, is a controversial issue that has been whether trigger warnings at colleges/universities should be issued to students who wish to be alerted on unappealing subjects or to not have triggered warnings from being practiced in American Universities. On the other hand, some argue that trigger warnings are necessary to keep students from emotional outbreaks in schoolrooms; however, others argue that trigger warnings are not useful and simply prevent students from acknowledging a true understanding of reality. My own view is that trigger warnings are not necessary to be practiced in American Universities,…
Pansies and Politics Mental health issues have hit a peak in recent years, it is as if everyone has some sort of psychological imbalance. “About 91 percent of college counseling center directors reported a rising trend of students with severe psychological problems on their campuses.” (Corley). To help those students’ campuses started labeling things with trigger warnings which are messages that say this has such content and could potentially distress someone. That’s a great idea for those struggling to overcome traumatic events, but there is a subset of these individuals, whose “trauma” remains questionable at best, who are trying to take that a step further by creating these so-called safe spaces.…
I am an individual. I know what foods I like. I know what shows I like to watch. I know what I like to read and I know what gets me upset.…
As much as victory gin is mouthwatering, free speech zones are free. Established by colleges and universities to accommodate—not stifle—Vietnam era protests, free speech zones were created in a time closer to that of George Orwell than our own contemporary society. Additionally, they are complemented by hazy, ambiguous policies that enable administrative abuse as well as accountability absent action against students. This cannot stand, for free speech zones and administrative censorship are a band-aid for a flesh wound, lacking solvency and efficacy while concurrently making a mountain out of a molehill because the vast majority of policy violations are benign in nature. Consider Hobbes’ social contract, in which people empower a state in exchange…
Triggered: An Account of Living in the 21st Century [Redacted as Not to Trigger] It all began on a rainy day. I was in my house, sifting through the usual onslaught of emails, direct messages, and twitter posts. I switch tabs over to my youtube channel, to check how people were responding to my instructional video on how to make Star Wars themed crochet doilies, when suddenly I saw it. I gasped aloud as my eyes met the black text in the comments section that read “ur fat”. I recoiled in my chair upon rereading it.…
College campuses that have instituted “speech codes” are attempting to limit incivility based on racially insensitive speech and sexual harassment by eliminating language with a negative social bias. However, speech codes confuse students into thinking twice about voicing opinions and repress the art of debate by challenging language instead of ideals. Universities try to “enforce civility” but that often backfires, “suppressing free expression instead of allowing for open debate of controversial issues”. (Lukianoff 775). Students want to be heard.…
There are both clinical and physical manifestations that can indicate that an individual is developing AIDS. One clinical manifestation is if patient develops a CD4 T cell count less than 200. Another one is if patient the patient develops one or more opportunistic infections. Common physical manifestations include rapid weight loss, recurrent fever, night sweats, prolonged lymph node swelling, constant diarrhea, sores on the mouth, anus, or genitals, and blotches on or under skin, inside mouth, nose, or eyelids.…
It is truly hard to watch and sit through multiple PAC events with very opinionated students who share their opinions but when another student voices out that they have a different view it is considered extremely disrespectful. One thing I enjoy about this school is Respect Week, but Respect Week is gone about in the worse manner imaginable. Respect Week revolves around admiring and highlighting students that are apart of the LGBTQ community and being a minority. Students go sit up on a stage a talk about how they were disrespected and discriminated against and how everyone must respect them and that only their opinion matters. For the past two years this school has hardwired into our mind that there is only one side to every story.…
College is supposed to be a time to explore all ideas and form your own, but that can only happen with exposure, something currently being denied many college students. By public administrators denying speakers and even students to speak and express themselves, they are throwing young adults into their lives with the mindset that you don’t have to hear any offensive speech or speech against your own values. Students are given the idea that the world is going to be just as sheltered when in reality free speech is present…
The Dangers of Safe Spaces Safe spaces can destroy the basic setup of college campuses right to promote freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is something that many have fought long and hard for everyone to have. College is supposed to help everyone get accustom to how things are in the real world. Having “safe spaces” on campuses deliberately hinders freedom of speech and it helps generate a world of more close minded people. While colleges are comprised of people from all around the world, everyone’s mind is not that diverse when it comes to thinking.…
All across college campuses, there have been contradictory opinions about safe spaces. On the one hand, safe spaces are necessary as they encourage discussion, physical safety, and group solidarity. On the contrary, safe spaces limit student exposure and can cause discrimination between the majority and minority figures, which causes safe spaces to have a negative reputation directed towards them. They engage in many definitions, my definition of a ‘safe space’ is any physical and or non- physical space where groups of the students can understand and discuss their positions with equally minded people, without feeling judged by others. Moreover, I feel as though colleges could benefit from having designated ‘safe spaces on campus, this will…