What offends me most about all this--beyond the braying from the Right about how why no, perish forbid, THEY'D never, ever impose political correctness standards on campus!--is reading the way that very privileged students stand in very privileged rooms in colleges and universities built on privilege, and wail about their privileges.
It isn't cuddling that working-class students need, or want. It's money and the time and the QUIET--not the fantasized perfect safety, but just plain quiet. It's enough money coming in that they're not constantly worried about their car, or electricity. It's child care. It's health care...you get the picture.
So if these guys want to impress me, they can stop quivering, and raise some scholarship money. they can volunteer at their college's day care. they can sign up to tutor adult illiterates. There's a zillion things that need doing to create REAL safe spaces, and this stuff is what these kids worry about?
good grief. What happens if there's a quake or a storm or something, the power goes for a couple days mid-winter, and they miss a couple meals? now there's a lesson on safe spaces.
Fortunately, few students at colleges act like this. they can't afford to.
It isn't cuddling that working-class students need, or want. It's money and the time and the QUIET--not the fantasized perfect safety, but just plain quiet. It's enough money coming in that they're not constantly worried about their car, or electricity. It's child care. It's health care...you get the picture.
So if these guys want to impress me, they can stop quivering, and raise some scholarship money. they can volunteer at their college's day care. they can sign up to tutor adult illiterates. There's a zillion things that need doing to create REAL safe spaces, and this stuff is what these kids worry about?
good grief. What happens if there's a quake or a storm or something, the power goes for a couple days mid-winter, and they miss a couple meals? now there's a lesson on safe spaces.
Fortunately, few students at colleges act like this. they can't afford to.
66
“The sad truth about society’s sensitivity in language use is not the spirit in which it is considered. It is the ultimate goal for which it has been imposed; to prevent anyone from feeling “uncomfortable.” No meaningful dialogue can occur in the absence one party or another feeling uncomfortable at some point in important discussion , if conversation is to result in a broadened awareness or personal change. At some point it is necessary to look beyond the “Uncomfortable”and see that it is not the Dialogue which is the problem, but the person experiencing the "discomfort”. Psychologically, as a result of "Entitlement" fostered by parents, and the fear of legal liability educational institutions face under the exaggerated use of Title IX, we are grooming a generation of "adults" who will have diminished Executive Ego Function. "Self-Infantilization", I believe a closely accurate term, but it is not the students validating the emotional immaturity, it is the Administration and Faculty policies, which focus more upon fear of repercussion more than the character growth of their students. Prioritizing where to focus one's objection to language and behavior, in an educational context, should enable students to apply this perspective to the injustices practiced against our global citizens. As of now, the primary narcissism displayed in student's current definition of "injustice" would suggest that Higher Education has become expensive day-care.
Scott E. Torquato, MS, LCSW
Scott E. Torquato, MS, LCSW
14
So much about the current debate on campus sexual assault reminds me of the old protectionist strategies used to keep women out of the higher paying jobs held by men. The women were held to be too delicate or genteel or weak to handle the tough jobs.
The latest commercial I've seen is addressed to men, and talks about their responsibility to stop a sexual assault before it happens, i.e. at a campus party. It's fine, a good and well-intentioned commercial. But it should have been targeted to both the young men and women attending these parties. And both young men and young women need to be responsible enough not to drink themselves into oblivion. Women should expect to have to take care of themselves at parties, not entrust their safety and well-being to others. We cannot have it both ways -- insisting on our rights and then shirking our responsibilities. A safe room is just another protectionist strategy that perpetuates the same tired stereotypes about women.
The latest commercial I've seen is addressed to men, and talks about their responsibility to stop a sexual assault before it happens, i.e. at a campus party. It's fine, a good and well-intentioned commercial. But it should have been targeted to both the young men and women attending these parties. And both young men and young women need to be responsible enough not to drink themselves into oblivion. Women should expect to have to take care of themselves at parties, not entrust their safety and well-being to others. We cannot have it both ways -- insisting on our rights and then shirking our responsibilities. A safe room is just another protectionist strategy that perpetuates the same tired stereotypes about women.
52
Why not provide everyone in the audience with a "thunder coat" and a chew bone?
Having myself as a teenager and young woman experienced bullying, both a stalking and an attempted sexual assault that each included up close and personal physical threats I am not unsympathetic to the sensitivity of victims. But we grow up, get passed these incidents and try not to let them rule our lives to the point that an open discussion about anything related makes us run off and have to hug a bunny.
A debate is an exchange of ideas and if you attend one, regardless of your previous life experience you must be prepared to hear both sides or not go.
Since this debate is not a required course and if it will upset you, don't attend.
Except for the extremely and starting to be really annoying, politically correct who will likely harass and ostracize Mr. Shapiro, who I applaud for not giving in to this nonsense and publicly displaying that, I can't imagine anyone who doesn't think this whole idea is not only an idiotic waste of time and money but a really good excuse to proclaim yourself a victim for life.
Having myself as a teenager and young woman experienced bullying, both a stalking and an attempted sexual assault that each included up close and personal physical threats I am not unsympathetic to the sensitivity of victims. But we grow up, get passed these incidents and try not to let them rule our lives to the point that an open discussion about anything related makes us run off and have to hug a bunny.
A debate is an exchange of ideas and if you attend one, regardless of your previous life experience you must be prepared to hear both sides or not go.
Since this debate is not a required course and if it will upset you, don't attend.
Except for the extremely and starting to be really annoying, politically correct who will likely harass and ostracize Mr. Shapiro, who I applaud for not giving in to this nonsense and publicly displaying that, I can't imagine anyone who doesn't think this whole idea is not only an idiotic waste of time and money but a really good excuse to proclaim yourself a victim for life.
22
Instead of safe places in which to avoid looking at or overcoming one's problems, I would suggest groups be set up to show people how to deal with them. Fear comes from within us, not outside of us.
What has happened in the past is over and done with unless we carry it around with us, using it to ruin our lives forever. We can't protect people from their own thoughts, but we can help them change them so the memories don't continue to brutalize from within. Jesus called it a renewing of the mind.
The author mentions invalidating people’s experiences. Why would you want to validate a terrible experience? Would it make you feel better to have people sympathize with you or to rid your mind of it as far as possible? Not only do I sympathize with someone who has had a terrible experience, I truly sympathize with anyone who carries bad memories around for life.
Ms. Hall said, “I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my 'dearly' and closely held beliefs,” Beliefs are habits of thought, which you have accepted. They are also in your head. They need to be examined and changed if they are not serving you well. Beliefs don't need protection. They need to be brought into a new light.
First rule: don't take it personally. The speaker is simply speaking his own beliefs. I take it you are free to do the same. I happen to believe that changing thoughts changes lives.
What has happened in the past is over and done with unless we carry it around with us, using it to ruin our lives forever. We can't protect people from their own thoughts, but we can help them change them so the memories don't continue to brutalize from within. Jesus called it a renewing of the mind.
The author mentions invalidating people’s experiences. Why would you want to validate a terrible experience? Would it make you feel better to have people sympathize with you or to rid your mind of it as far as possible? Not only do I sympathize with someone who has had a terrible experience, I truly sympathize with anyone who carries bad memories around for life.
Ms. Hall said, “I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my 'dearly' and closely held beliefs,” Beliefs are habits of thought, which you have accepted. They are also in your head. They need to be examined and changed if they are not serving you well. Beliefs don't need protection. They need to be brought into a new light.
First rule: don't take it personally. The speaker is simply speaking his own beliefs. I take it you are free to do the same. I happen to believe that changing thoughts changes lives.
27
After two weeks that have exposed appallingly racist and sexist behavior on college campuses, the New York Times looks around and finds...a rape victim with a room full of art supplies.
Of course some college students are infantilized, and of course college administrators, like most people, make some baffling decisions. The author has done an outstanding job of finding a few excellent examples. But institutions of higher education have always grappled with the challenge of presenting contrary viewpoints in a way that fosters dialogue and conversation, rather than shallow mockery and name-calling. Every 25 years or so, we panic about liberalism at universities, and yet we survive - and, I would argue, become better at including more points of view in the conversation.
I was raped when I was 16, and (I now understand) as a result, I looked for a "safe space" when I looked at colleges. I ended up at a women's college. This was in the 90s, the last time we collectively panicked about political correctness. I didn't run any speakers off campus, but along the way to graduation, I occasionally needed support from teachers, administrators, and mental health services. So did lots of kids dealing with difficult family, health or financial situations.
I enjoy mocking Millenials and helicopter parents as much as anyone, but when I look around at the world, I don't think the biggest problems are an overabundance of mental health treatment or respect for victims of violence.
Of course some college students are infantilized, and of course college administrators, like most people, make some baffling decisions. The author has done an outstanding job of finding a few excellent examples. But institutions of higher education have always grappled with the challenge of presenting contrary viewpoints in a way that fosters dialogue and conversation, rather than shallow mockery and name-calling. Every 25 years or so, we panic about liberalism at universities, and yet we survive - and, I would argue, become better at including more points of view in the conversation.
I was raped when I was 16, and (I now understand) as a result, I looked for a "safe space" when I looked at colleges. I ended up at a women's college. This was in the 90s, the last time we collectively panicked about political correctness. I didn't run any speakers off campus, but along the way to graduation, I occasionally needed support from teachers, administrators, and mental health services. So did lots of kids dealing with difficult family, health or financial situations.
I enjoy mocking Millenials and helicopter parents as much as anyone, but when I look around at the world, I don't think the biggest problems are an overabundance of mental health treatment or respect for victims of violence.
21
“Hyper-sensitive”?! “The term”hypersensitive” as applied to rape victims is “Hypo-sensitive” .If Ms.Byron had bothered to interview any experts who specialize in treating trauma victims, or any trauma victims,she would have learned that rape and other trauma victims are not equipped to deal with trauma triggers on their own,and that Grounding exercises” and “Self-Soothing”are coping techniques which are recommended by trauma experts to a trauma victims who are experiencing flashbacks. The employment of crayoning,etc by adults may sound childish to someone who is ignorant of treatments used to treat trauma victims,as Ms.Shulevitz clearly is, or has not been a trauma victim who has been taught to engage other senses as a means of “bringing the mind back to the present moment”as Dr.Marsha Linehan, trauma expert and founder of Dialectic Behavior Therapy (D.B.T.) teaches. These are used as forms of “Mindful meditation” , distraction,self-soothing,and grounding.
I never thought I would be crayoning in my 50s. Then again, I never thought I would be a victim of severe trauma. Coloring, soft-music, or anything that engages the senses to aid in “self-soothing”and grounded, used in an effort to attempt to distract oneself from traumatic flashbacks,can be effective coping mechanisms.I speak from experience. Ms. Shulevitz obviously does not.
Ms.Shulevitz’s dismissiveness & trivialization of trauma distressed this victim of extreme trauma .
I never thought I would be crayoning in my 50s. Then again, I never thought I would be a victim of severe trauma. Coloring, soft-music, or anything that engages the senses to aid in “self-soothing”and grounded, used in an effort to attempt to distract oneself from traumatic flashbacks,can be effective coping mechanisms.I speak from experience. Ms. Shulevitz obviously does not.
Ms.Shulevitz’s dismissiveness & trivialization of trauma distressed this victim of extreme trauma .
8
Interesting essay. Clearly this is a discussion we must have. As a college professor I wonder which is more important--preparing students for the real world or creating a helicopter campus with a facade of warm cuddly safety.
I believe we do our students a disservice by "protecting" them from things, topics, ideas they don't like or feel comfortable with. What we should be doing is preparing them to deal with a world that won't always agree with them, a world that will politically challenge them, a world that at times can be ugly.
We certainly don't do that by giving them stuffed animals and play doh. We should create adults ready to make their way in a world with many scary ideas and deeds.
I believe we do our students a disservice by "protecting" them from things, topics, ideas they don't like or feel comfortable with. What we should be doing is preparing them to deal with a world that won't always agree with them, a world that will politically challenge them, a world that at times can be ugly.
We certainly don't do that by giving them stuffed animals and play doh. We should create adults ready to make their way in a world with many scary ideas and deeds.
34
We have always lived in a world with the existential range from Joy and Grace to horrific despotism and cruelty. Persons that learn the best way to exist in this kind of environment is to 'see' our lives through the prism of love. Taming and controlling the human urge to be destructive is our goal. Kindness and compassion can become a way of life. This is the answer to 'how we should live and be in this world'.
Colleges have a moral responsibilty to teach, educate its students how to navigate the world at large in a positive caring way. Caring of themselves and all. This does not include the shielding of students from the harsh realities of the world. It includes the skills to move through the world to overcome the world's harshness and to create a decent and moral place to exist.
There are many in the United States that have suffered great traumas from the cruelties still occurring, crime, racism, discrimination of all kinds, gender, gender orientaion of lifestyle, poverty, all that goes with this; poor health care, inadequate diet, education and shelter.
Everyone needs support from others. The setting up of 'safe zones' is manditory to overcome all the listed above. There must be areas filled with love, support, understanding in order to overcome 'the pain and cruelty experienced by the unfairness of life'. This does not mean sheltering from the open and free speech in the college setting. It means having a place to go to when the pain of their trauma flares.
Colleges have a moral responsibilty to teach, educate its students how to navigate the world at large in a positive caring way. Caring of themselves and all. This does not include the shielding of students from the harsh realities of the world. It includes the skills to move through the world to overcome the world's harshness and to create a decent and moral place to exist.
There are many in the United States that have suffered great traumas from the cruelties still occurring, crime, racism, discrimination of all kinds, gender, gender orientaion of lifestyle, poverty, all that goes with this; poor health care, inadequate diet, education and shelter.
Everyone needs support from others. The setting up of 'safe zones' is manditory to overcome all the listed above. There must be areas filled with love, support, understanding in order to overcome 'the pain and cruelty experienced by the unfairness of life'. This does not mean sheltering from the open and free speech in the college setting. It means having a place to go to when the pain of their trauma flares.
9
As a student at an institution of the same caliber (with both an accordingly and regrettably high degree of 'privilege') as those mentioned here, I would like to expand this article with my experience.
I believe that this phenomenon, on the large, has gained prevalence at locations of higher education for a purpose other than those provided here and provided by activists. My perspective suggests (in admittedly neo-Freudian fashion) that these campaigns are wrought with their members' insecure sense of individuality.
When applying to these institutions of higher learning, we're encouraged to differentiate ourselves in the context of a pool of applicants; to demonstrate both general intelligence alongside a singular character. At my university, the majority of people have high general intelligence, alongside comparable hobbies and interests. The result is that people constantly feel the need to distinguish themselves from their peers. What better way than through intensely unique, emotionally-charged experiences? Here we often refer to it, tongue-in-cheek, as the privilege of victimhood: the right to defend your unresolved trauma against the forces of the outside world, on the grounds that this damage is distinctive to your identity, and that any attempt to remedy/ignore their effects is a threat to said identity.
I only have so many characters, but that's the commentary-free gist. I would only add that a plurality of these students' peers quietly lament this gist.
I believe that this phenomenon, on the large, has gained prevalence at locations of higher education for a purpose other than those provided here and provided by activists. My perspective suggests (in admittedly neo-Freudian fashion) that these campaigns are wrought with their members' insecure sense of individuality.
When applying to these institutions of higher learning, we're encouraged to differentiate ourselves in the context of a pool of applicants; to demonstrate both general intelligence alongside a singular character. At my university, the majority of people have high general intelligence, alongside comparable hobbies and interests. The result is that people constantly feel the need to distinguish themselves from their peers. What better way than through intensely unique, emotionally-charged experiences? Here we often refer to it, tongue-in-cheek, as the privilege of victimhood: the right to defend your unresolved trauma against the forces of the outside world, on the grounds that this damage is distinctive to your identity, and that any attempt to remedy/ignore their effects is a threat to said identity.
I only have so many characters, but that's the commentary-free gist. I would only add that a plurality of these students' peers quietly lament this gist.
49
This is perhaps a nuanced and important issue. People are often going to disagree vehemently, due to style, temperment and philosophy. Due to a sort of reflexive human emotonality in response to issues of trauma and abuses of power, it's hard to seperate the feelings from the facts. Both the abusers and the victims will use the soft coersion of righteous indignation to tilt the playing field in their direction. When an argument is weak or too complicated, this is a popular rhetorical tactic, used often by children, but used by both sides in this argument. I think, for me, I tend to sympathize with the victims, because violence is epidemic and trauma is very real, as we increasingly realize from revelations about PTSD, head trauma, rape, child abuse, etc. The dominant culture says, "move on, we don't have room for that level of special consideration in the hurly-burly of life. Grow up. Suck it up. Life is often cruel and unfair!" But how else do we reduce abuse and cruelty when it's so deeply embedded in our ways of life?
13
Next, a group of students who believe in creation will ask professors to stop talking about evolution because it hurt their closely and clearly held feelings. Students who are against abortion under any circumstances will bring in a tent and white noise to lectures on feminism, gender, violence, whatever. Left or right, it is easy to be foolish in the face of complexity. Learning is uncomfortable and even risky! That said, I think the students need to get help to heal from their traumas, and it is perhaps better taking a year off from college.
43
While I don't want to "trigger" anyone by bringing up my own experiences of trauma, I am increasingly appalled by the notion that those who experience trauma must be treated forever as victims and not survivors. I guess I could have taken the victim road but where would I be now but living with my aging parents, tearful, clutching a childhood teddy bear and unable to work because of a coworker's unknowing expression of a troubling idea, word or feedback at a team meeting. I chose the survivor route, and in so doing became the master of my emotions, able to experience them without becoming overwhelmed by them. The trauma I experience from two separate but unfortunately closely spaced events 10 years ago has colored my world view and shaped a some significant life choices I had to make in the years immediately following. One of the those choices was to surround myself with supportive friends and get specialized cognitive behavioral therapy. I wish the traumatic events had never occurred but I do not regret where my subsequent decisions have taken me. I have grown and accomplished greater things, all the while unsheltered from the slings and arrows of the real world and its inhabitants. Please save safe zones for the people who really need them, sexually and physically abuse children, women in the Middle East, and everyone on the African continent who lives in fear of the the Boko Harone.
80
"'Bringing in a speaker like that could serve to invalidate people’s experiences,' she told me." How, pray tell, can the generalized view of one person invalidate a particular experience of another? In the human relations frame I was introduced to a few decades ago, to allow another to invalidate you or your experience was to "give away your power." If the person is close to you, if this is a person whose positive regard you crave, who spouts contrary ideas or tells you you're foolish or worse to believe as you do, that's one thing. It's hurtful. It can make you angry. And maybe you have to do something about it. Argue or leave the room. But the notion that a stranger with a microphone could have the power undermine a person's sense of herself and her story suggests a person who has a lot of growing up to do. College is a good place to do this, and exposure to contrary ideas is the way it is done. And taking back one's power. Owning it, becoming a self-validating person who knows her own story and moves on to the next chapter.
72
This assumption that hearing dissenting opinion is unsafe is not just a concern on the left. A Christian recent movie 'Is God Dead?" feature a fictional professor who demanded that his students sign an Atheism pledge to pass the course. When I insisted that no real professor would do such a thing, various posters on Amazon told stories of being allegedly persecuted for their Christian beliefs. This "persecution" consisted only of Atheist professors who forcefully expressed their Atheism in class. I would not have been as forceful as those professors were, because I think politeness is a much better pedagogical tool. But it was clear the professors never demanded the students become atheist themselves to pass the course. Yet the students thought they were being persecuted just from listening to opinions they disagreed with. Then there is the fear that anyone who says "Happy Holidays" is persecuting Christians.
The original safe space described here was not protecting people from speech so much as from the side effects of an act of physical violence. Threats of physical violence can be equally destructive, and have been seen as assault for centuries by English Common Law. But that is where we need to put sand on this particular slippery slope. Opinions are not threats, and no one should be protected from opinions. (Although a little politeness is a useful communication tool when feelings run high.)
The original safe space described here was not protecting people from speech so much as from the side effects of an act of physical violence. Threats of physical violence can be equally destructive, and have been seen as assault for centuries by English Common Law. But that is where we need to put sand on this particular slippery slope. Opinions are not threats, and no one should be protected from opinions. (Although a little politeness is a useful communication tool when feelings run high.)
72
"The safe space, Ms. Byron explained, was intended to give people who might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies. . . ."
I began reading the New York Times when I was in 4th Grade, in 1964. By then, I knew the world was not all cookies, coloring books and frolicking puppies, and I was ready to learn something about the actual world. I learned about Vietnam and Freedom Summer and a great many other things. By the time I entered college in 1973, in large part due to my being a regular reader of "the paper of record," while I found some things disturbing, nothing I encountered in the classroom or elsewhere on campus shocked me. I had acquired sufficient knowledge of the actual world to be able to function in it.
I would advise young people to put away the coloring books and read the Times. Yes, the world is a "troubling" place, but if we are to have any prospects of making it better, we must start by understanding the reality of the thing.
I began reading the New York Times when I was in 4th Grade, in 1964. By then, I knew the world was not all cookies, coloring books and frolicking puppies, and I was ready to learn something about the actual world. I learned about Vietnam and Freedom Summer and a great many other things. By the time I entered college in 1973, in large part due to my being a regular reader of "the paper of record," while I found some things disturbing, nothing I encountered in the classroom or elsewhere on campus shocked me. I had acquired sufficient knowledge of the actual world to be able to function in it.
I would advise young people to put away the coloring books and read the Times. Yes, the world is a "troubling" place, but if we are to have any prospects of making it better, we must start by understanding the reality of the thing.
111
Here we go, zet again: The land of free, land of brave, shining example of all kinds of constitution etc. guaranteed freedoms.
Political correctness is more damaging and more effective (in negative ways) than communist totality ever was and I know a lot about that, not only from personal experience.
As "oppressed women" now represent 62% of all college students, typical female tendency of "not to offend anyone's feelings" is going hand in hand with that, being taken advantage by the Ruling Class and their enablers, in this case feminists, promoters of victimhud of any imaginable minority and subgroup of people.
All this is, above all, an intentionally kept alive set of "issues" to get people divided, arguing each other vigorously ... while the 800 pound gorila in the room, growing concentration of wealth in top 1% and slipping opportunities for the rest continues to take place.
So, the distraction and terror continue: Who would be so bad, so "insensitive" not to build "safe places" everywhere, at every of our steps. Socrates and Plato, academic debate, academic freedom are being lost as docile, easily manageable population in being raised.
Political correctness is more damaging and more effective (in negative ways) than communist totality ever was and I know a lot about that, not only from personal experience.
As "oppressed women" now represent 62% of all college students, typical female tendency of "not to offend anyone's feelings" is going hand in hand with that, being taken advantage by the Ruling Class and their enablers, in this case feminists, promoters of victimhud of any imaginable minority and subgroup of people.
All this is, above all, an intentionally kept alive set of "issues" to get people divided, arguing each other vigorously ... while the 800 pound gorila in the room, growing concentration of wealth in top 1% and slipping opportunities for the rest continues to take place.
So, the distraction and terror continue: Who would be so bad, so "insensitive" not to build "safe places" everywhere, at every of our steps. Socrates and Plato, academic debate, academic freedom are being lost as docile, easily manageable population in being raised.
37
What I find most interesting about the negative responses to this article is how often its detractors directly, and without a hint of irony, equate words spoken on a stage to being shot at.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not something anyone gets from hearing words they dislike. That is an insult to actual PTSD victims. Even the description of the "safe space" is an insult to the concept: it sounds, in fact, like kindergarten for adults. Free cookies if I say I feel emotionally distressed? Throw in milk, and I'd never have cause to say I felt any better until the snacks ran out.
It's clear that the system which has developed promotes and aggravates "victimhood" as more a belief system akin to a religion. It even has its zealots, who declare any departure from the faith to be heathens and heretics. This nonsense, especially coming from an institute of higher learning, is shameful.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not something anyone gets from hearing words they dislike. That is an insult to actual PTSD victims. Even the description of the "safe space" is an insult to the concept: it sounds, in fact, like kindergarten for adults. Free cookies if I say I feel emotionally distressed? Throw in milk, and I'd never have cause to say I felt any better until the snacks ran out.
It's clear that the system which has developed promotes and aggravates "victimhood" as more a belief system akin to a religion. It even has its zealots, who declare any departure from the faith to be heathens and heretics. This nonsense, especially coming from an institute of higher learning, is shameful.
41
When I first started college, one of the first things my professors told me was that although I was there to earn a degree, I was also there to learn and change my way of seeing the world. That was something that I took to heart. I felt that it was a good thing to put my beliefs into question because I wanted to become a better, more knowledgeable person and I didn't have to listen to everything my parents said anymore.
While I don't think that students' safety should ever be at risk on campus I have to question why it's such a big deal if someone doesn't like what someone else has to say. It's a good thing to hear what others think, especially if their opinions aren't aligned with yours. The worst thing that can happen is you experience a paradigm shift that changes your way of thinking and even if it makes you uncomfortable for, you come out better for it.
I don't wish to make light of what others have been through but everyone experiences something harsh at some point. This is life, after all. And everyone does need to face reality. If you don't like or want to hear what someone has to say that's fine, but you shouldn't deprive others of the knowledge and insight they may gain by not allowing someone to speak. Is freedom of speech only extended to certain individuals? If so, then freedom of speech isn't really freedom of speech.
While I don't think that students' safety should ever be at risk on campus I have to question why it's such a big deal if someone doesn't like what someone else has to say. It's a good thing to hear what others think, especially if their opinions aren't aligned with yours. The worst thing that can happen is you experience a paradigm shift that changes your way of thinking and even if it makes you uncomfortable for, you come out better for it.
I don't wish to make light of what others have been through but everyone experiences something harsh at some point. This is life, after all. And everyone does need to face reality. If you don't like or want to hear what someone has to say that's fine, but you shouldn't deprive others of the knowledge and insight they may gain by not allowing someone to speak. Is freedom of speech only extended to certain individuals? If so, then freedom of speech isn't really freedom of speech.
29
Everyone needs a safe space, no matter their age or stage of life.
5
This is absurd. Why doesn't everyone just stay home? The only safe place is a locked room with no one else there - but if you have an i-phone or computer, you're still not safe. I have zero sympathy for people who wallow in self-pity. Get a thicker skin, get out there and fight - speak up, write a scathing response, don't run off and hide with a box of crayons. I understand some people have true traumas, but don;t go to a debate on rape culture or abortion or whatever the topic if you know it will affect you. The debate at Brown was not required. As for college courses I think it's silly to have to warn students ahead of time. They are grown-ups. They can leave a classroom if they need to and explain it later. I'm glad the writer brought up Charlie Hebdo at the end of the article. It's a reminder of just how important it is that we should have freedom of expression, even if what we say might hurt someone else. I'd rather be hurt by what someone writes or says once a day than have expression curbed.
American college students need to grow up or this country will become a nation of the wounded.
American college students need to grow up or this country will become a nation of the wounded.
52
As someone who is from the young generation written about in this article here, I will say that not all of us are like this, but that the ones who are tend to be much more vociferous and aggressive than the ones who would passionately welcome open discussion and debate. It has become a running joke amongst some in my generation (me included) to call our peers out as "SJWs" or Social Justice Warriors--people who tend to hang out online on sites like Tumblr, Buzzfeed, etc where they can isolate themselves and rant every day about the supposed racist, sexist, and homophobic acts they have witnessed at the grand old age of 20 (or younger for many). It's sad that when you try to engage these SJWs on substantive debates with ideas contrary to their own, they will block you and incite a mob to call you a "racist" or a "sexist pig." It's also scary how much of a cult-like mentality is formed where if even a fellow SJW-er goes so far as to question a line of thinking, they are cut off from the herd and rebranded as a "closet racist" or "closet sexist."
For a while, I thought that these loons were confined to the safety of cyberspace and Tumblrs neutral borders, but I have increasingly seen them disrupt academic functions and events in the name of "justice" and "potentially hurt feelings."
What a joke. Even as a stalwart democratic, I am loathe to associate myself with them. I guess this is the far-left's answer to the Tea Party.
For a while, I thought that these loons were confined to the safety of cyberspace and Tumblrs neutral borders, but I have increasingly seen them disrupt academic functions and events in the name of "justice" and "potentially hurt feelings."
What a joke. Even as a stalwart democratic, I am loathe to associate myself with them. I guess this is the far-left's answer to the Tea Party.
75
Isnt this all due to the Boomer Gen trying to eradicate risk from all aspects in the lives of their children? Be it germ-phobia, padded playgrounds, or the everyone goes home with a trophy (in little league sports) so not to feel bad mentality...? From the Boomers being dishonest with their children that they are all "special and gifted" - despite there being no real evidence of it in their children's performances? (athletically, academically, artistically, etc)
The Boomers have been hell bent trying to soften their children's world, and in turn make the real world look fuzzy and welcoming - all to the detriment of their children, and their children's children emotional well being. The Boomers spawned a few generations who have woefully irrational POVs about the Real World and the reality that it doesnt care about their sensitivities. Their expectations are not grounded in reality - but that of fairy-tales and lies.
"Don't challenge me, give it to me in palatable doses and flavors, so I don't notice how bad tasting life actually is." should be the mantra of the Boomers offspring.
The Boomers have been hell bent trying to soften their children's world, and in turn make the real world look fuzzy and welcoming - all to the detriment of their children, and their children's children emotional well being. The Boomers spawned a few generations who have woefully irrational POVs about the Real World and the reality that it doesnt care about their sensitivities. Their expectations are not grounded in reality - but that of fairy-tales and lies.
"Don't challenge me, give it to me in palatable doses and flavors, so I don't notice how bad tasting life actually is." should be the mantra of the Boomers offspring.
9
I remember when college as a “safe space” meant “draft deferment,” not a place to avoid unpopular ideas, and students were clamoring for the end of in loco parentis. This whole business is a balancing act with, on one hand, the very real need to protect vulnerable populations against hostile environments, both physical and mental, and on the other, the healthy and sometimes uncomfortable free expression of ideas. Sometimes things are not as simple as they seem. This column mentioned that protests against an abortion debate were because two men were discussing it. Consider that the underlying, subliminal basis of the protests might reflect a reality of women being systematically marginalized on that campus. It certainly didn’t help that the actual debate title was about Britain’s "abortion culture,” a red-flag phrase directly intended to offend, i.e. hostile to a certain population. As far as the students who have been abused, the safe space issue points out that the services for young women are not working. They are not learning strategies for coping (including avoidance of situations such as public debates) if they need safe rooms to be provided. Effective counseling (not band-aid counseling) is the responsibility of the colleges since it is where young people are brought together, often for the first time without adult oversight.
9
Most—nearly all—college students in the US don’t attend elite schools. Why do those who write for the Times persist in telling us only about the climate on a small handful of campuses? I assure you that the dynamic reported on here varies widely and it is counterproductive to generalize from this unrepresentative subset. I realize that the Times’s editors mostly attended these elite institutions and intend to send their children to them, but that’s a mighty poor reason for ignoring what takes place outside the confines of the Ivies and their close confreres.
18
I am continually struck between the disconnect in the lives of children of different classes and beliefs. The kids described here are children of the Woodstock generation or the part of it that thought Woodstock was relevant. The children of the hard hat demonstrations in Manhatten could this fine day be finding a safe place in the bottom of a poorly constructed Kurdish bunker their only threat flying lead. I no longer believe one is gloriously and explicitly related to the other as in one is defending the right of the other to express some obscure point. It just doesn't wash anymore. For me it went out the window when the UCLA student council had to debate if a jewish nominee was capable of impartiality in her student council job (she was afterall a jew). After that one how their could be one jew alive who does not believe "it" has "begun" is just beyond me.
I think the "safe place" argument is a smoke screen for something a good deal more pernicious. I don't know what but it is always anti-isreal/anti religion/anti individual responsibility (hence individuality). It is just the biggest bunch of slopsistic twaddle ever produced by an institution (academia) richly known already for slack reasoning. The implicit message of this piece that little can be done about it and it like other trends come and go may or may not be true. In the meantime the time has come to defund the biggest offenders in public colleges. Their is just no virtue in underwriting intellectual indolence.
I think the "safe place" argument is a smoke screen for something a good deal more pernicious. I don't know what but it is always anti-isreal/anti religion/anti individual responsibility (hence individuality). It is just the biggest bunch of slopsistic twaddle ever produced by an institution (academia) richly known already for slack reasoning. The implicit message of this piece that little can be done about it and it like other trends come and go may or may not be true. In the meantime the time has come to defund the biggest offenders in public colleges. Their is just no virtue in underwriting intellectual indolence.
9
And here we have some illumination regarding the outrage - across the spectrum - to Starbucks' modest "Race together" proposal. What has most fascinated me about that is not the proposal itself but the anger about it. One big collective "No! I'm not doing it & you can't make me!" Much of the uproar has apparently had to do with the Starbucks barristas not being "trained," as though such conversations could only safely occur in tightly controlled settings. This sheds a great deal of light on how come that "national conversation" some of our leaders say we need to have isn't occurring. But I think that Wendy Kaminer's remark goes to the heart of the matter: her astonishment that people apparently can't distinguish between racist talk & talk about racism. This is quite serious.
13
When I was 20 I lived as an adult, made all my own decisions, hitch hiked alone through WI, the Eastern US and Canada & earned my own living (then & ever since).
These tender college students should just keep living at home so life won't be too scary for them.
These tender college students should just keep living at home so life won't be too scary for them.
16
To the predictably misogynist group of NY Times readers - this "safe place" approach is absolutely NOT the result of feminism. Feminism requires a warrior mentality, not a victim mentality. Sadly, like racism, American culture likes to pretend there is equality for the sexes, and conversations that disagree are frequently put-down or cut short. Young women cannot help but be confused by their status and rights, because they have not yet experienced full scale gender discrimination. And the focus on women's looks is more intense and cruel than it ever was. This "safe place" approach might neuter political fights by making them public therapy sessions. I agree it's weak, but do not blame feminism. Feminism taught us to fight for equality of work and pay, and the war is not over yet.
15
I love this hysterical utterly absurd "unsafe" notion -- so I as a feminist and abuse survivor must demand that college professors and university administrators protect me from the world, and my fellow students must just accept (with no right to object) silently my demand for my classes, invited speakers, debates etc to be controlled and censored according to my personal psychological needs. This isn't political activism in any way shape or form.
This is utterly appalling. I was an active, proud feminist in college in the early 80s. I and my fellow activists most certainly did NOT demand that universities become sanitized atmospheres where we had to be protected from reality and from the world, and where university professors' jobs and reputations were at risk if they didn't protect me. Many of us were rape and abuse survivors. We struggled, we learned, we experienced hurt, we developed and matured and grew up. And we fought and confronted real oppression - we didn't run away from "unsafe" spaces that made us uncomfortable.
Imagine the kids during the civil rights era being so infantilized and so terrified of the world -- they'd never have been able to go out and confront REAL racism and change the world. The kids in this article are utterly terrified and cowardly--they can't handle anything disturbing and expect the rest of the world to cater to them. They certainly can't fight for social justice with this mentality.
This is utterly appalling. I was an active, proud feminist in college in the early 80s. I and my fellow activists most certainly did NOT demand that universities become sanitized atmospheres where we had to be protected from reality and from the world, and where university professors' jobs and reputations were at risk if they didn't protect me. Many of us were rape and abuse survivors. We struggled, we learned, we experienced hurt, we developed and matured and grew up. And we fought and confronted real oppression - we didn't run away from "unsafe" spaces that made us uncomfortable.
Imagine the kids during the civil rights era being so infantilized and so terrified of the world -- they'd never have been able to go out and confront REAL racism and change the world. The kids in this article are utterly terrified and cowardly--they can't handle anything disturbing and expect the rest of the world to cater to them. They certainly can't fight for social justice with this mentality.
45
It will be hard to take this generation seriously until they are ready to leave childhood behind. As someone who is sometimes in a position to hire college educated workers, I can’t imagine hiring someone with such a narrow and closed perspective. It’s hard to imagine such a person being capable of learning, contributing to the creative energy of a working team, or making an original contribution to anything.
20
I am surprised the blanket protection of generally accepted science, and lack of social debate at Christian based colleges (especially evangelical and fundamental) was not discussed. While "safe spaces" have some value, the accreditation of those schools as actual places of higher learning is shameful and a disservice to these several united states.
12
Amazing that there are such delicate flowers in this elite institution of higher learning. I can't imagine what palliative measures they must take when they are exposed to the ISIS atrocities or the testimony at the Boston Bomber trial.
Xanax, Librium, or perhaps Thorazine?
When ate these universities going to stop catering to the liberal and conservative thought police?
Xanax, Librium, or perhaps Thorazine?
When ate these universities going to stop catering to the liberal and conservative thought police?
13
College really should be about new ideas not closing out other viewpoints...with that said neither should it be a platform for hate speech and bigotry. Learning about hate speech and how to identify it is however, a very necessary skill in this day and age, particularly on college campuses. ,
4
Excellent piece. The role of universities is to promote debate and the free exchange of ideas, and while the notion of creating "safe spaces" where no one can be offended is a laudable one, it seems like an impossible task. Who's to say what should and should not offend? We are all susceptible to being offended in one way or another, so who decides what is offensive enough to be banned? Where does it end? What about the rights of those who simply want to share their (however stupid or ignorant) ideas? How could the "best idea" win if they are banned from opening their mouths? And how can students learn to argue and disagree with one another in a respectful, peaceful way if they cannot even speak their minds openly? We all dislike being offended and some of us are more susceptible than others, but running away from "offensive words" is not the solution (what should be cultivated is the ability to not care at all about what other people think about us!). We don't go to university to be sheltered; we go to be exposed to different ideas and world views and to learn how to articulate persuasive and logical arguments against those ideas that we don't agree with, or that we find repulsive.
8
It's perhaps the most ironic part, that a large part of the process for PTSD treatment is teaching people how to reduce the impact of those very things that set them off and evoke unpleasant memories. Mental health professionals, being forced to adopt a realistic understanding of trauma, understand its not remotely realistic to expect that you will be able to completely avoid 'triggers'. And those that do often foster deep paranoia, and end up matching the symptoms of agoraphopes. Instead, they advocate more healthy, and realistic approaches: mindfulness, emotional grounding, self expression, etc. To hide from your triggers, especially when they are so commonplace and non-threatening, is to willingly handicap yourself.
I happen to be an undergraduate student at a large public university *quite* well known for its radically progressive agenda, and I have mixed feelings about the article's portrayal of university life. While I am quite aware that on some parts of campus and in some departments this is reality, in many others it is completely and comfortably absent. I am in the department of microbiology; I've never encountered this mentality at an institutional level. There are still large segments of universities that reject these ideas outright. A significant number of the Harvard Law faculty just wrote an open letter to that effect. Besides, the sheer irrationality of this movement will be its own downfall. 'Give a man enough rope, and he'll hang himself.'
I happen to be an undergraduate student at a large public university *quite* well known for its radically progressive agenda, and I have mixed feelings about the article's portrayal of university life. While I am quite aware that on some parts of campus and in some departments this is reality, in many others it is completely and comfortably absent. I am in the department of microbiology; I've never encountered this mentality at an institutional level. There are still large segments of universities that reject these ideas outright. A significant number of the Harvard Law faculty just wrote an open letter to that effect. Besides, the sheer irrationality of this movement will be its own downfall. 'Give a man enough rope, and he'll hang himself.'
10
"(Be mindful of those) threats that come from elevating the values of consensus, conformity and comfort above the value of truth" -Larry Summer, 2006 to Harvard graduating class. He is right, as this article illustrates.
Business recruiters, as an example, visit college campuses to preferentially seek out student members of sports teams as prospective employees: they have been taught unquestioning obedience to the coach. Colleges seek applicants whose lives have been carefully crafted by a variety of counselors, "coaches", advisors and "how-to" manuals to conform to a certain set-type: "unusual" backgrounds stigmatize. Parents are manipulated and molded by commercial enterprises to produce set-type conformist children of all ages who will be "best prepared to get ahead".
The common thread here is the American pressure to conformity. There is a new corporate funnel leading from the cradle to the cubicle. Allowing dissenting opinions to percolate in might have serious consequences.
Business recruiters, as an example, visit college campuses to preferentially seek out student members of sports teams as prospective employees: they have been taught unquestioning obedience to the coach. Colleges seek applicants whose lives have been carefully crafted by a variety of counselors, "coaches", advisors and "how-to" manuals to conform to a certain set-type: "unusual" backgrounds stigmatize. Parents are manipulated and molded by commercial enterprises to produce set-type conformist children of all ages who will be "best prepared to get ahead".
The common thread here is the American pressure to conformity. There is a new corporate funnel leading from the cradle to the cubicle. Allowing dissenting opinions to percolate in might have serious consequences.
7
Among many other things, higher education can be a place to practice reasonably civil engagement and debate with foreign assumptions, prejudices and ideas. It's a place to try, fail, learn and improve. What a sad failure on the part of administrators and educators to instead be complicit in producing an educated class unpracticed in the essential give and take of civil society and encouraged to think it a sign of sensitivity and sophistication to cover one's ears and run through the world's streets shouting "La La La La La La La". Without the trying, there's no improving; sadly, some rough lessons probably lie ahead.
4
In addition to designing, teaching and administering curriculum on the undergraduate level for two decades now (at both public and private institutions), I've also advised hundreds of students. So, I personally find this very well written op-ed to be brimming with resonant truths and profoundly cathartic on almost every level. Unfortunately, as anyone currently involved already knows (and who is brave enough to tell the truth), it's only one well articulated facet of the crumbling shambles that is modern day Academia. Facades are easy to maintain and patch up when need-be, but infastructure is something else entirely. There are many termites at work in the wood!
12
These kids have grown up post-September 11, when every norm of civilisation has been violated in the name of protecting us from terrorism. 'Safety first' has been the cover for governments seeking permission to do everything from torture to imprisonment without trial.
Is it any wonder that the children of this era have grown up believing in the right to safety before anything else? If they're shutting down freedom of speech in the name of safety, remember that their elders did it first.
Is it any wonder that the children of this era have grown up believing in the right to safety before anything else? If they're shutting down freedom of speech in the name of safety, remember that their elders did it first.
31
Infantilization 101. Good grief.
Since women are masters of the lethal "micro aggression" (generally aimed at other women), the idea that they must be protected from the slings and arrows of the real world is laughable. As a woman over the age of 50, I find it deeply insulting.
Since women are masters of the lethal "micro aggression" (generally aimed at other women), the idea that they must be protected from the slings and arrows of the real world is laughable. As a woman over the age of 50, I find it deeply insulting.
17
Sadly, most recent literature in management and safety engineering show us that the absolute minimum requirement for a "safe" environment ( say an aircraft cockpit or a nuclear power plant control room ) is to have, first, "a safety culture" which means specifically that it is safe to politely question and challenge any assumption, idea, or mental model upon which actions are based.
The key lesson there is that actual safety, in fact, is a result of sufficient humility to accept the remote possibility that something one dearly believes is, in fact, wrong.
There are skills and practices required to carry on civil and polite discussions which challenge standing assumptions, management and leadership practices, and the status quo. These, it seems to me, should be the primary content of K-12 education, and only after they are mastered should other things, like "math" be introduced.
The problem, I suspect, is that children already have a natural tendency to ask "Why?" and the reality is that teachers, for the most part, really can no longer answer that question, and so they avoid an environment in which even asking it is permissible.
There seems to be room for improvement here, as the actual practices in the field are different from the best practices that are revealed by research.
The key lesson there is that actual safety, in fact, is a result of sufficient humility to accept the remote possibility that something one dearly believes is, in fact, wrong.
There are skills and practices required to carry on civil and polite discussions which challenge standing assumptions, management and leadership practices, and the status quo. These, it seems to me, should be the primary content of K-12 education, and only after they are mastered should other things, like "math" be introduced.
The problem, I suspect, is that children already have a natural tendency to ask "Why?" and the reality is that teachers, for the most part, really can no longer answer that question, and so they avoid an environment in which even asking it is permissible.
There seems to be room for improvement here, as the actual practices in the field are different from the best practices that are revealed by research.
6
"The safe space, Ms. Byron explained, was intended to give people who might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies..."
Ah yes, an idyllic childhood retreat. How appropriate that those who are unable to process adult discussions, excuse me, those who might find "...the debate too upsetting" , seek out such juvenile succor.
A question: Are colleges and universities so desperate for tuition dollars that they feel they must coddle such students, or are campus administrators using such students to further validate their own personal biases?
Ah yes, an idyllic childhood retreat. How appropriate that those who are unable to process adult discussions, excuse me, those who might find "...the debate too upsetting" , seek out such juvenile succor.
A question: Are colleges and universities so desperate for tuition dollars that they feel they must coddle such students, or are campus administrators using such students to further validate their own personal biases?
14
I'm wondering whether Brown Univ. would consider intercepting the morning newspaper before it is delivered to its student dorms and cutting out any articles that certain students might find disturbing?
14
I am pessimistic about the future of this topic. It seems to me that we are living in a society where it's citizens are willing to trade freedom and privacy for "protection from terrorists", a society that seems passively willing to be protected from Edward Snowden, rather than hail him as a principled, courageous whistle blower.
This is a society that allowed a president to attack another nation on the ostensible grounds of "preventive war" only to realize it was about oil all the time, then re-elect him on the basis that he was "protecting us" in a dangerous world.
As we become wealthier and more insular, we have more that we feel needs to be protected. In a nation that elects politicians who promise protection from the fear they pander and promote, what will we trade next to be "protected"?
This is a society that allowed a president to attack another nation on the ostensible grounds of "preventive war" only to realize it was about oil all the time, then re-elect him on the basis that he was "protecting us" in a dangerous world.
As we become wealthier and more insular, we have more that we feel needs to be protected. In a nation that elects politicians who promise protection from the fear they pander and promote, what will we trade next to be "protected"?
8
Ms El Rhazouli represents the real world, which is the unsafe space that these undergrads are about to enter. Higher ed is about getting them ready for that, not for prolonging their state of denial.
14
This may be one of the finest editorials I've seen in the NYT. Western culture and western education seems to have lost its foundation.
22
The world is not a safe place. Deal with it!
8
I find this beyond ridiculous. How can a nation survive when its young adults need to go into a safe room with coloring books and videos of puppies after the supposedly traumatic experience of hearing an opinion you don't like? Could people raised this way have fought WW2 to defeat the Nazi's? If the notion of a room with coloring books was brought up when I was in college I would have burst out laughing at the idea and anyone using the room. People need to grow up. And second - universities need to turn their focus back to learning instead of managing opinions, sexual assault, making sure nobody is offended and so on. If there is a rape that should be handled by the police.
The bottom line is we are going to create a generation of young people that are not adults but 5 year olds in 22 year old bodies.
The bottom line is we are going to create a generation of young people that are not adults but 5 year olds in 22 year old bodies.
22
We have created a bubble like upbringing in this country where certain groups of children are raised trauma free. There is no such thing as learning from your mistakes, rebounding from failure and attempting to learn disparate points of view. Helicopter parents are determined to not let this happen and because of this many of their children will remain children for an inordinate period of time.
Unfortunately our capitalistic system does not work this way. Unless you continue on from your chosen college to a plum position in the family business there will be many difficult days ahead to "make it" in this world. There will be unforeseen setbacks, personal and family difficulties as well as coming to grips with your own limitations.
Ultimately though, isn't that what life is. There is no greater feeling than to be tested and learn from other points of view. An open mind is an intellectual mind. The more you listen the more selfless you become. What is wrong listening to various points of view and agreeing to disagree ? Isn't that what American exceptionalism is derived from ?
Unfortunately our capitalistic system does not work this way. Unless you continue on from your chosen college to a plum position in the family business there will be many difficult days ahead to "make it" in this world. There will be unforeseen setbacks, personal and family difficulties as well as coming to grips with your own limitations.
Ultimately though, isn't that what life is. There is no greater feeling than to be tested and learn from other points of view. An open mind is an intellectual mind. The more you listen the more selfless you become. What is wrong listening to various points of view and agreeing to disagree ? Isn't that what American exceptionalism is derived from ?
9
The part of the piece about Brown University, an Ivy League school, was mind-boggling. Coloring books? Bubbles? Play-Doh? Videos of frolicking puppies? I can't tell if we're talking about pre-school or the Edward G. Robinson death scene near the end of "Soylent Green".
This is a good piece, but it is missing something quite important. Title IX is being used to deny due process rights of the accused, almost always men (which means it's an equal protection violation as well). That's why so many men who were wrongly kicked out of school for being "rapists" but never convicted in the courts are successfully suing universities for these violations of their rights.
If these people want to take rape seriously, then they should press their state governments to bring back the death sentence for anyone convicted of aggravated rape in a court of law. Otherwise, these people aren't advocating for anything but the further infantilization of adults.
This is a good piece, but it is missing something quite important. Title IX is being used to deny due process rights of the accused, almost always men (which means it's an equal protection violation as well). That's why so many men who were wrongly kicked out of school for being "rapists" but never convicted in the courts are successfully suing universities for these violations of their rights.
If these people want to take rape seriously, then they should press their state governments to bring back the death sentence for anyone convicted of aggravated rape in a court of law. Otherwise, these people aren't advocating for anything but the further infantilization of adults.
5
Freedom of speech is threatened when people depend on victim politics in order to flame incendiary emotional rage, pity or downright hate. Some speakers invited to college campuses thrive on being an instigator by using inflammatory tactics meant to push young people's hot buttons and then sit back and smugly watch the ensuing chaos. These same divisive individuals choose to label themselves as feminists, civil rights activists or avant-garde thinkers. In reality, they are simply attention seekers using provocative language in order to build a fan base using negative tactics to garner publicity & game the system.
Anytime a feminist using sensational language which denigrates the Other including gender baiting she is undermining social progress. Imagine if ML King, Sandra Day O'Connor, President Obama, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Naomi Wolf, and other respected leaders used similar sensationalism to achieve social change. Ms. El Rhazaoui was an excellent choice to invite to a college campus to speak in order to underscore free speech and the resulting debate between offending Muslims and her supporters is worthy of intelligent discussion. It underscores the concept of freedom of speech although this isn't a free license for celebrity speakers to use permissive cultures to divide & conquer in order to further their careers. Twitter activists should be invited off campus in order to separate the religion of twitterdom from the intellectual integrity of University campuses.
Anytime a feminist using sensational language which denigrates the Other including gender baiting she is undermining social progress. Imagine if ML King, Sandra Day O'Connor, President Obama, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Naomi Wolf, and other respected leaders used similar sensationalism to achieve social change. Ms. El Rhazaoui was an excellent choice to invite to a college campus to speak in order to underscore free speech and the resulting debate between offending Muslims and her supporters is worthy of intelligent discussion. It underscores the concept of freedom of speech although this isn't a free license for celebrity speakers to use permissive cultures to divide & conquer in order to further their careers. Twitter activists should be invited off campus in order to separate the religion of twitterdom from the intellectual integrity of University campuses.
5
I'm a rape and domestic violence survivor who dealt with symptoms of PTSD for 30 years. I'm of two minds on this topic. First, I've learned that my feelings come from my own thoughts, not from anything external to me. No one has the power to "trigger" me -- it's only my own thinking, which is incredibly freeing. If everyone could see that their life experience/their reality is being created solely by their thoughts, we'd all be a lot happier because we don't need to fear our own thinking. But secondly, violence against women is so ingrained in our society that it is time to start looking more closely at the survivors and stop supporting -- and start dismantling -- a patriarchal system. Perhaps things are starting to swing this way, and people are having trouble hanging on and accepting/facilitating this change. Believe me, there is nothing fragile about a survivor or rape or violence. But the "safer space" ultimately is the world at large -- which needs to turn its attention toward respecting women and not raping and killing us -- and also in our own heads.
13
There is a puzzling and disturbing assumption in all of this: that 18-year-old students arrive at college without the tools to handle ideas and opinions that run counter to what they think is right. Where are the parents, the caretakers, the mentors whose duty it is to help youngsters from the cradle on up process and confront what they hear, read and experience? The examples in this thought-provoking piece suggest that these 'vulnerable' kids are, from the beginning, simply left adrift to fend off any slings and arrows as best they can. This is not to say that there are no young people with valid reasons to feel sensitive, to become upset, to be triggered by certain remarks. But I do hope that we have not gone so far off the rails as to require cookies and stuffed animals in some sort of ER for the psyches of the rest of the college population.
7
"...though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied."
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
17
This phenomenon can be traced to serval threads I think. At some point students were granted the right to decide in no small measure what they should be taught and by whom. The notion that a curriculum should be "relevant" begs the twin questions relevant to whom and relevant for what.
The idea that students have the right to feel protected from certain speech because they are too fragile to withstand and learn from provocative experience follows from the idea that they have the right to choose what they learn. The problem is that it is based on their unwillingness to face challenge rather than from wisdom about their own needs and the needs of the society in which they live.
Moreover the culture that has spawned this version of education reflects I think the intersection of moral relativism, the legitimization of identity politics, and the transformation of the experience of life into a therapeutic journey as if we were all born sick and need to be cured of the human condition.
The problem with each of those trends is that individually and in concert they work to undue the common bonds of a society.
The idea that students have the right to feel protected from certain speech because they are too fragile to withstand and learn from provocative experience follows from the idea that they have the right to choose what they learn. The problem is that it is based on their unwillingness to face challenge rather than from wisdom about their own needs and the needs of the society in which they live.
Moreover the culture that has spawned this version of education reflects I think the intersection of moral relativism, the legitimization of identity politics, and the transformation of the experience of life into a therapeutic journey as if we were all born sick and need to be cured of the human condition.
The problem with each of those trends is that individually and in concert they work to undue the common bonds of a society.
9
Life is unsafe. Trauma happens. Throughout human history, human beings have found means to cope. Healing, though, is an individual accomplishment.
If an individual finds solace in Play-doh and stuffed animals, whom am I to object? On the other hand, when individual victims are stuffed into a "class" of victims, I believe some of the individual accomplishment of healing is diminished. Institutionalized responses to "classes" of victimization can only serve to reinforce the individual's sense of weakness, and make real recovery more difficult.
If an individual finds solace in Play-doh and stuffed animals, whom am I to object? On the other hand, when individual victims are stuffed into a "class" of victims, I believe some of the individual accomplishment of healing is diminished. Institutionalized responses to "classes" of victimization can only serve to reinforce the individual's sense of weakness, and make real recovery more difficult.
5
I'm one of the many (old) people who has trouble even getting to the point where I could understand the "self-infantilizing" minority this article decries. When I went to college in New York City--New York City!--in 1981, I was an adult. Or I thought I was. I'd been driving since 16, and the drinking and voting age was 18. Freshman drank! New York was pre-gentrification boom and understood to be a gritty, real city and a dangerous place. One of the world's great music clubs was across the street from the campus and I liked to pretend I was sophisticated by sitting there drinking a martini and listening to jazz. In my spare time I protested apartheid and supported Gary Hart for president. None of this has anything to do with Ms. Shulevitz's article, except to suggest that my basic understanding of what college was 35 years ago--and that of a lot of my classmates, I assure you--did not even comprise the concepts that seem to be motivating this (probably small) group of today's students. But if they are having as much fun as I had, and learning as much about life as I did, then good on them. I tend to doubt it, but then again what do I know? I'm an old person.
13
While I disagree with many of claims that safe spaces inherently coddle students, Schulevitz is on to something when she points out that there is an insular phenomenon at work throughout our society (not one that is limited to college campuses).
Many times during undergrad when I expressed my views about how colleges and communities should handle issues surrounding rape and sexual assault, I was told that - as a male - I do not understand what it is like to be a rape/sexual assault survivor and to live in a world that protects assailants and shames victims. What these accusers did not know, is that I was sexually assaulted for many years as a child. While my experience certainly is not the same as any other, it does provide me with a perspective that is valuable to the debate. What is delegitimizing is to require individuals to reveal their experience in full before they are given a voice.
As the exchange between Ms. El Rhazoui and the student at the University of Chicago reveals is that we are entering a time where, increasingly, people graft identities on to other people based upon their own experiences. This type of insularity is extremely damaging to a free and open society. It may be in part a result of social media, and calls the role this medium plays in to question. If I can unfriend a person because I disagree with their posts, why can't I demand that a speaker be removed from campus?
Many times during undergrad when I expressed my views about how colleges and communities should handle issues surrounding rape and sexual assault, I was told that - as a male - I do not understand what it is like to be a rape/sexual assault survivor and to live in a world that protects assailants and shames victims. What these accusers did not know, is that I was sexually assaulted for many years as a child. While my experience certainly is not the same as any other, it does provide me with a perspective that is valuable to the debate. What is delegitimizing is to require individuals to reveal their experience in full before they are given a voice.
As the exchange between Ms. El Rhazoui and the student at the University of Chicago reveals is that we are entering a time where, increasingly, people graft identities on to other people based upon their own experiences. This type of insularity is extremely damaging to a free and open society. It may be in part a result of social media, and calls the role this medium plays in to question. If I can unfriend a person because I disagree with their posts, why can't I demand that a speaker be removed from campus?
24
Intolerance justified by entitlement.
True, no one needs to listen to something they consider rot, and as well, no one should be forced to listen to such. This is not to say that one should not listen to dissenting views, because to be firm in one's belief(s), one must not only know what others believe, but how to truly defend one's own beliefs against those opposing views.
But to argue, or worse, demand, that one should receive special consideration or treatment simply because someone is espousing upon his or her beliefs and the very utterance of said beliefs are somehow injurious....well, the word ludicrous comes to mind.
People need to grow up and be responsible, be confident, be tolerant of others (rather than hide in your room and anonymously post foolishness from your 'phone'). And parents need to quit teaching their children that they have guaranteed unilateral rights (to anything), and that they are uber-intelligent and entitled to whatever it is their little hearts desire. The simple fact (FACT) is that most (99.8) children are average at best. And if that is not good enough for you, mom and dad, get some psychological help.
True, no one needs to listen to something they consider rot, and as well, no one should be forced to listen to such. This is not to say that one should not listen to dissenting views, because to be firm in one's belief(s), one must not only know what others believe, but how to truly defend one's own beliefs against those opposing views.
But to argue, or worse, demand, that one should receive special consideration or treatment simply because someone is espousing upon his or her beliefs and the very utterance of said beliefs are somehow injurious....well, the word ludicrous comes to mind.
People need to grow up and be responsible, be confident, be tolerant of others (rather than hide in your room and anonymously post foolishness from your 'phone'). And parents need to quit teaching their children that they have guaranteed unilateral rights (to anything), and that they are uber-intelligent and entitled to whatever it is their little hearts desire. The simple fact (FACT) is that most (99.8) children are average at best. And if that is not good enough for you, mom and dad, get some psychological help.
6
However absurd these arrangements may seem, given our national attitude towards free speech, they are not so strange if you follow the money. When you are paying $50 or $60 or even $30 thousand dollars a year for a "product" it is not at all surprising that you want a situation that is to your liking and you ask for and often get it whether it is a car, a house or an education. Having taught college I can say that the pressure from student/parent customers extends to grades and recommendations as well.
Furthermore, in discussions of rape or racism words move silently from sound to action AFTER the event. It isn't simply what happens during the talk or the discussion that is offensive or even dangerous. And it isn't those with tender feeling who "go after" the others physically or in a verbally insulting, belittling and other destructive fashion. Just read this column. It is those who hold racist or misogynist beliefs who are the physical and emotional aggressors, feeling always justified in holding those views and in attacking, in a variety of ways, those who don't.
Since colleges often do the minimum necessary for protecting the bodies of young women et al. from assault, these arrangements for those who find such talks upsetting seems a little enough thing to do. They aren't canceling these talks altogether are they? These arrangements are a little more than telling you not to attend, they are a way of saying, "We recognize your feelings and your perspective."
Furthermore, in discussions of rape or racism words move silently from sound to action AFTER the event. It isn't simply what happens during the talk or the discussion that is offensive or even dangerous. And it isn't those with tender feeling who "go after" the others physically or in a verbally insulting, belittling and other destructive fashion. Just read this column. It is those who hold racist or misogynist beliefs who are the physical and emotional aggressors, feeling always justified in holding those views and in attacking, in a variety of ways, those who don't.
Since colleges often do the minimum necessary for protecting the bodies of young women et al. from assault, these arrangements for those who find such talks upsetting seems a little enough thing to do. They aren't canceling these talks altogether are they? These arrangements are a little more than telling you not to attend, they are a way of saying, "We recognize your feelings and your perspective."
3
Reading this clear depiction of a self-selected censor at the point of attempting to seize power over freedom of speech in a whole college - triggered my personal fear of irrational power.
Perhaps the college student in question might be better employed at discovering why she, personally, feels entitled to decide what other people may think and hear, then devising a way to protect that minority who voluntarily accept her kind of protection.
Perhaps the college student in question might be better employed at discovering why she, personally, feels entitled to decide what other people may think and hear, then devising a way to protect that minority who voluntarily accept her kind of protection.
9
ALWAYS LISTEN TO ALL IDEAS . . .
...for many reasons: should you firmly believe that the other side(s) is/are wrong or even dangerous, you may now be in a position to fully understand them and argue your preconceived positions.
Very few ideologies have nothing to offer; one should be a true liberal (using its original meaning) and judge theories without preconceived notions; Liberals can learn a great deal from Conservatives and visa versa.
Ergo, most "truth" is ethereal and there will and should be a an understanding of differing opinions. Often what is exists in a monolithic is detrimental to be available for amelioration. We often need a manner which incorporates more than one didtinctive position.
Liberals blame income disparity on the greedy and lack of governmental actions; Conservatives blame cultural differences. I suspect that both positions have some validity. And, incorporating both positions is probably the only viable manner to deal with this problem.
...for many reasons: should you firmly believe that the other side(s) is/are wrong or even dangerous, you may now be in a position to fully understand them and argue your preconceived positions.
Very few ideologies have nothing to offer; one should be a true liberal (using its original meaning) and judge theories without preconceived notions; Liberals can learn a great deal from Conservatives and visa versa.
Ergo, most "truth" is ethereal and there will and should be a an understanding of differing opinions. Often what is exists in a monolithic is detrimental to be available for amelioration. We often need a manner which incorporates more than one didtinctive position.
Liberals blame income disparity on the greedy and lack of governmental actions; Conservatives blame cultural differences. I suspect that both positions have some validity. And, incorporating both positions is probably the only viable manner to deal with this problem.
6
“I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs” is the statement of a person attending college and learning nothing. We have to navigate a world of vociferous voices. A well-educated person is able to understand various viewpoints and partake in civic discourse. I feel empathy for her assault and suffering but she should not have the power to shut out conflicting opinion.
9
I believe in a diversity of opinion. Always have, always will. Suppressing and replacing half of the opinions with positive reinforcement is, in my view, misguided.
4
I guess I am puzzled by "safe". Our entire Nation seems to be obsessed with being safe. There is a big difference between being uncomfortable and unsafe. I have a middle school grandson and this is a conversation we have had. Part of it has been to "sit with yourself and take a deep breath". Many times what he feels is normal discomfort - kids are easily embarrassed at this age and I want him to learn to move through it, not run away.
11
Whatever happened to 'sticks and stones...?' College should be the place for debate, enlightened and, sometimes, raucous. In 1966 we turned our backs on R M Nixon at the University of Rochester graduation, but we let him speak.
8
This isn't a Republican versus Democrat issue. As many Democrats think this is puerile as Republicans. Name a single issue that potential Democratic nominees have to pussyfoot around that is comparable with creationism, global warming denial, or "is Obama an American?"
Rightist media outlets paint these hermetic confraternities of PC-enforcers as if they're prototypical of Democrats and their future when they absolutely are not. When similar nonsense is discussed on the political right, reasonable Republicans back into the querencia and prepare for battle royal, because they have to. But liberals of sound mind can dismiss such silliness without worrying themselves over a potential auto-de-fé. The cathexis of the GOP for a handful of nonsensicalities is the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen; a century from now, I truly hope all history books allot ample space to what the Republicans did during the Obama years.
Now to the topic: This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. These "coddle me" college claques are usually led by students under the direct influence of radical leftists in the academy, and centrists shouldn't yield to their Stasi-like behavior. If you don't want to hear what someone has to say in a debate, don't attend. If you don't want to hear opinions that differ from your own, pattern your life after Greta Garbo and become a recluse. If not, show some sophistication and remember the sticks and stones nursery rhyme.
Rightist media outlets paint these hermetic confraternities of PC-enforcers as if they're prototypical of Democrats and their future when they absolutely are not. When similar nonsense is discussed on the political right, reasonable Republicans back into the querencia and prepare for battle royal, because they have to. But liberals of sound mind can dismiss such silliness without worrying themselves over a potential auto-de-fé. The cathexis of the GOP for a handful of nonsensicalities is the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen; a century from now, I truly hope all history books allot ample space to what the Republicans did during the Obama years.
Now to the topic: This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. These "coddle me" college claques are usually led by students under the direct influence of radical leftists in the academy, and centrists shouldn't yield to their Stasi-like behavior. If you don't want to hear what someone has to say in a debate, don't attend. If you don't want to hear opinions that differ from your own, pattern your life after Greta Garbo and become a recluse. If not, show some sophistication and remember the sticks and stones nursery rhyme.
8
I'm a clinical psychologist specialiizing in working with persons who have experienced psychological abuse and neglect (trauma). The point of safe places/strategies is to intervene in dissociative responding, which is a mammalian response to events or reminders of events that are inescapable and threaten great harm or death. Intervening in dissociation allows trauma survivors to modulate their mind/body responses to triggering situations, with the goal of re-engaging in life, not of avoiding debate and disagreement. It is a gross distortion of this important tool to use it to prevent mere discomfort and allow for retreat from the reality of differing opinions and strongly-expressed beliefs.
17
Most astoundingly, many Americans mistakenly believe that the First Amendment does not protect 'hate speech', the definition of which is always in the eyes of the beholder.
Many also mistakenly believe that the First Amendment only protects speech that criticizes the government, so outside of trashing Obama, all other speech can and should be censored.
What the First Amendment does mean is that the government may not restrict the right to free speech and although there are a few sensible limits on this right, none of them include not having your feelings hurt.
Since public universities are funded by the government, they are considered governmental institutions and the First Amendment applies to all speech on campuses, no matter how disfavored or offensive.
If only professors, administrators, and students (almost all female) understood our Bill Of Rights, perhaps our future citizens would not be so polarized.
It is depressing and frightening that many of our young (white, college-educated) women, after being 'brutally assaulted' by dissenting opinions, have an attack of the vapors and take to the fainting couch (with as many sympathetic witnesses to the drama as they can gather), but will bravely rouse themselves to call their mommies and daddies and, of course, their lawyers.
That campuses allow and even encourage this disturbing, as what comes next is book banning and book burning, both of which have already occurred at our public universities.
Women, grow up.
Many also mistakenly believe that the First Amendment only protects speech that criticizes the government, so outside of trashing Obama, all other speech can and should be censored.
What the First Amendment does mean is that the government may not restrict the right to free speech and although there are a few sensible limits on this right, none of them include not having your feelings hurt.
Since public universities are funded by the government, they are considered governmental institutions and the First Amendment applies to all speech on campuses, no matter how disfavored or offensive.
If only professors, administrators, and students (almost all female) understood our Bill Of Rights, perhaps our future citizens would not be so polarized.
It is depressing and frightening that many of our young (white, college-educated) women, after being 'brutally assaulted' by dissenting opinions, have an attack of the vapors and take to the fainting couch (with as many sympathetic witnesses to the drama as they can gather), but will bravely rouse themselves to call their mommies and daddies and, of course, their lawyers.
That campuses allow and even encourage this disturbing, as what comes next is book banning and book burning, both of which have already occurred at our public universities.
Women, grow up.
18
John Milton’s "Areopagitica" defends exposure to evil and error as necessary to development of virtue and critical thinking:
"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister'd vertue, unexercis'd & unbreath'd, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortall garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is triall, and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue therefore which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evill, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a blank vertue, not a pure; her whitenesse is but an excrementall whitenesse; …. Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human vertue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with lesse danger scout into the regions of sin and falsity then by reading all manner of tractats, and hearing all manner of reason?"
--https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/areopagitica/text.shtml
Studying Milton's essay defending liberty of the press and defending education which encourages discussion of all ideas should be a part of everyone’s higher education.
"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister'd vertue, unexercis'd & unbreath'd, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortall garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is triall, and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue therefore which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evill, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a blank vertue, not a pure; her whitenesse is but an excrementall whitenesse; …. Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human vertue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with lesse danger scout into the regions of sin and falsity then by reading all manner of tractats, and hearing all manner of reason?"
--https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/areopagitica/text.shtml
Studying Milton's essay defending liberty of the press and defending education which encourages discussion of all ideas should be a part of everyone’s higher education.
6
A few observations:
*It doesn't matter what the motivation of these protesters is. If they equate speech about rape with the actual harm of rape, a discussion about racism to the harm of racism, then they are stifling free speech. That's too high a price to pay for their emotional safety.
*If the mere mention of these difficult topics is so upsetting, what about their own speech? How can you be traumatized by the mere mention of rape, yet carry a mattress around campus? Or a sign depicting a gun aimed at an African American's head. Could it be that what's upsetting is not the discussion, but the contrary point of view?
*At least this makes the decision easier for parents considering whether to in vest in college for their kids. If I thought my son or daughter would spend their college years in a room with coloring books to avoid a debate, the answer would be "no." College is already a four-year real-world avoidance program for some kids, and this makes it worse.
*It doesn't matter what the motivation of these protesters is. If they equate speech about rape with the actual harm of rape, a discussion about racism to the harm of racism, then they are stifling free speech. That's too high a price to pay for their emotional safety.
*If the mere mention of these difficult topics is so upsetting, what about their own speech? How can you be traumatized by the mere mention of rape, yet carry a mattress around campus? Or a sign depicting a gun aimed at an African American's head. Could it be that what's upsetting is not the discussion, but the contrary point of view?
*At least this makes the decision easier for parents considering whether to in vest in college for their kids. If I thought my son or daughter would spend their college years in a room with coloring books to avoid a debate, the answer would be "no." College is already a four-year real-world avoidance program for some kids, and this makes it worse.
7
Wow: America's growing obsession with the victim mentality meets Brown University. Charles Darwin would roll over in his grave. There's a reason some mutations survive in the population and some don't. Let Katherine Byron and her ilk go the way they deserve - the way of the dodo.
But it's not just the students' or their parents' fault and it will be a long time before this sorry phenomenon dies out. I'm afraid the mental health profession is partly to blame. For years now, mental health professionals (or so they call themselves) have been taking the once legitimate concept of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition that was first recognized among battle-scarred World War I soldiers, and applying the diagnosis anywhere and everywhere some poor soul feels the slightest discomfort about the world. I work in mental health and can't even tell you how many people walk in the door having been given some bogus diagnosis of PTSD because their boss spoke to them rudely or a distant relative died of cancer.
The effect of all this infantilizing isn't benign - in a few years from now I wouldn't be surprised if these infantilized ninnies try to offer their "sensitive feelings" as a defense in court for anything they might be accused of. That's if our nation still has courtrooms in a few years. I'm pretty sure ISIS won't have any trouble mowing over a country led by Ms. Byron's generation.
But it's not just the students' or their parents' fault and it will be a long time before this sorry phenomenon dies out. I'm afraid the mental health profession is partly to blame. For years now, mental health professionals (or so they call themselves) have been taking the once legitimate concept of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition that was first recognized among battle-scarred World War I soldiers, and applying the diagnosis anywhere and everywhere some poor soul feels the slightest discomfort about the world. I work in mental health and can't even tell you how many people walk in the door having been given some bogus diagnosis of PTSD because their boss spoke to them rudely or a distant relative died of cancer.
The effect of all this infantilizing isn't benign - in a few years from now I wouldn't be surprised if these infantilized ninnies try to offer their "sensitive feelings" as a defense in court for anything they might be accused of. That's if our nation still has courtrooms in a few years. I'm pretty sure ISIS won't have any trouble mowing over a country led by Ms. Byron's generation.
13
The assumption made here is that the primary mission of the University is an intellectual one: imparting knowledge, challenging preconceptions etc. That is not the case: primary mission of an American institution of higher education is to survive as a business. In order to accomplish this, it will do what it takes to please its customers, the tuition-paying parents and students: it will tolerate parental hovering, coddle the darling ones, offer all manners of perks that enhance the “collegiate experience.” It will shield students from intellectual and other discomforts, accept grade inflation, and, at graduation, it will ship the crowd out intellectually unprepared and emotionally immature.
Educating the younger generation is inherently a communal undertaking, not a business proposition, and it is very difficult to think of a business model for education that does not eventually succumb to the need to please the customer. If a society is serious about educating its young, it needs to set aside communal resources for that, establish a set of standards for both educators and students, and allow the educational process to take place, in both its richness and rigor.
Educating the younger generation is inherently a communal undertaking, not a business proposition, and it is very difficult to think of a business model for education that does not eventually succumb to the need to please the customer. If a society is serious about educating its young, it needs to set aside communal resources for that, establish a set of standards for both educators and students, and allow the educational process to take place, in both its richness and rigor.
6
I believe all the points the writer makes are very well taken. I would only subnit one alternative idea. I know several college aged young adults and have witnessed the type of histrionic demands for censorship bemoaned here, and I can never escape the impression that for some it is about attention. Those who demand the suppression of speech or discussion often seem not only concerned with preventing but equally as much with beginning a new discussion with themselves at the center. It is not just the rearing of a coddled or insular generation that begets this inabilty to hear, consider and cope with other, possibly offensive viewpoints, but also of a self-consumed and narcissistic one that A- demands to be the center and topic of discussion; and B- is so undeservedly sanctimonious and self-assured after a lifetime of flattery and indulgence that they cannot conceive that there even is a potential to learn from others and their experiences and ideas. The philosophy of introspection has gained such dominance that individuals have lost the crucial skills of perception, empathy and incorporation of new information and ideas into their world view. This comes with maturity, if at all, and people grow up slower and slower these days. It will ultimately lead to the further dysfunction of our political and social, as well as academic discourse unless we start to teach our young people that being a citizen means more than just trying to mould all around you in your own image.
8
I have been unhappy to see requests for trigger warnings and other protective measures described in this article. But there is something troublesome about the examples Shulevitz cites and doesn't cite.
Why isn't the firing of Steven Sailita at University of Illinois included in this litany? The Trustees explicitly claimed his position had to be rescinded on the (unsupported) theory that he might make students feel uncomfortable. What about the intense pressure from students, administrators, and many in the public when pro-Palestinian speakers are invited to campus? A whole column could be written about those episodes, and as in my capacity in an academic leadership position I saw many such moments first-hand.
Until it is recognized that people on many sides want to preemptively shield college students from political speech and viewpoints, articles like this are going to read to me like scapegoating of young women and Muslims. The real story is much more complex, and has to do with the way college campuses are subject to an intensification of the political and economic storms of the whole society.
Why isn't the firing of Steven Sailita at University of Illinois included in this litany? The Trustees explicitly claimed his position had to be rescinded on the (unsupported) theory that he might make students feel uncomfortable. What about the intense pressure from students, administrators, and many in the public when pro-Palestinian speakers are invited to campus? A whole column could be written about those episodes, and as in my capacity in an academic leadership position I saw many such moments first-hand.
Until it is recognized that people on many sides want to preemptively shield college students from political speech and viewpoints, articles like this are going to read to me like scapegoating of young women and Muslims. The real story is much more complex, and has to do with the way college campuses are subject to an intensification of the political and economic storms of the whole society.
12
By the time students are in college, they should have been taught that the best way to deal with offensive, upsetting, or unkind speech is to directly speak back. If a person can't do so, they don't need some contrived safe place. They need love and support, and if that doesn't work, therapy to become strong enough to cope with the onslaughts that nearly all of us face at one time or another in our lives. I am not saying that it is an easy path to validate oneself and it's OK to take it easy in the beginning. But the answer does not lie in closing one's mind. It lies in pulling the dragons out of the closet, facing them, and defeating them.
And by the way, if you are crazy enough to blame a rape victim, you really are a dreadful human being.
And by the way, if you are crazy enough to blame a rape victim, you really are a dreadful human being.
1
On our campus, we recently had a rather bizarre event in which a group of law students insisted that a speaker be disinvited to a panel. Their demand was prefaced by their first professing a staunch belief in "free speech". It's difficult to know how they could object to this person's views when they weren't willing to even hear them.
6
Mostly, I agree with the author. However, I do think when it comes to discussion of sexual violence or rape, it is important to face the fact that outspoken women who challenge traditional views are subject to threats that are not just imaginary, but real. An argument about what constitutes rape or whether someone was actually raped or what should happen if someone is inappropriately touched or assaulted but not raped is an argument about what rights someone (mostly men) have to inflict harm on others (mostly women). It's obviously really important that these things be discussed, but you would have to be willfully ignorant not to understand the signals that are being sent to both women and men in such discussions, about the place and importance of women and women's views to society, and how easily views such as those espoused by Shulevitz will be used to defend the kinds of comments that lead to the repression of speech by women -- e.g., a female speaker at Utah State, who cancelled a speech on the very timely topic of threats against women because the school would not guarantee her safety. Which is to say, Shulevitz seems to overlook the degree to which women are in fact silenced and intimidated when they don't adhere to the traditional view that mostly just shrugs its shoulders when harm is threatened or even inflicted on the weaker by the stronger.
1
College should not be a cocoon. Article makes UG life sound more protected than the cossetting which the Great American Marshmallow life offers youngsters. Here, we are talking the average Brown student and people like that.
Even though college should be no cocoon, safeguarding college students from rape does not ask too much.
Even though college should be no cocoon, safeguarding college students from rape does not ask too much.
1
I dread the fact that these are the people who will be deciding my and my loved ones' future.
7
Thank you Ms. Shulevitz for a wonderful piece.
Buried in it was what I consider to be the key word in this whole debate.
Puerile.
We are surrounded by it. Puerility rules.
From the local level to Congress, and certainly SCOTUS, the wimpy boy culture has overwhelmed us. It's especially disappointing to see it infecting women who are traditionally stronger and more down to earth than men.
Guess what kids, the world is unsafe. Get used to it.
Grow up.
Buried in it was what I consider to be the key word in this whole debate.
Puerile.
We are surrounded by it. Puerility rules.
From the local level to Congress, and certainly SCOTUS, the wimpy boy culture has overwhelmed us. It's especially disappointing to see it infecting women who are traditionally stronger and more down to earth than men.
Guess what kids, the world is unsafe. Get used to it.
Grow up.
6
I know a thing or two about trauma disorder. I was diagnosed over half a decade ago with a variant of PTSD. I experienced intense acute symptoms followed by all encompassing life-halting recovery. Being triggered while in a period of acute symptoms or early recovery is akin to being asked to carry a large box of books just before or after back surgery.
Trauma is a systemic neurological injury. It takes care, isolation and rigor to promote healing and recovery. But like occupational therapy, it also requires reintroduction and exposure to typical daily encounters.
With that in mind, I get frustrated when I see a culture of perpetual sheltering for trauma victims. Someone in my extended family is also a trauma victim and works with other trauma victims. Their adult cultural experience has been reduced a bland diet of Disney children's movies and young adult fiction. At holiday encounters, "difficult" subjects of conversation are verboten. This saddens me. I often feel that this other family member and fellow trauma survivor, by building such an impenetrable fortress decades, has voluntarily become a social and cultural cripple.
Meanwhile, some of the bravest, strongest people I know are also trauma survivors who have treated their recovery with determination. Like me, they still get triggered and have flare ups of acute symptoms (psychological, social, and somatic), but have developed strategies to recognize symptoms and engage in self as needed. Never do they shy from life.
Trauma is a systemic neurological injury. It takes care, isolation and rigor to promote healing and recovery. But like occupational therapy, it also requires reintroduction and exposure to typical daily encounters.
With that in mind, I get frustrated when I see a culture of perpetual sheltering for trauma victims. Someone in my extended family is also a trauma victim and works with other trauma victims. Their adult cultural experience has been reduced a bland diet of Disney children's movies and young adult fiction. At holiday encounters, "difficult" subjects of conversation are verboten. This saddens me. I often feel that this other family member and fellow trauma survivor, by building such an impenetrable fortress decades, has voluntarily become a social and cultural cripple.
Meanwhile, some of the bravest, strongest people I know are also trauma survivors who have treated their recovery with determination. Like me, they still get triggered and have flare ups of acute symptoms (psychological, social, and somatic), but have developed strategies to recognize symptoms and engage in self as needed. Never do they shy from life.
7
College is supposed to be the way station between childhood and independent adulthood. A place in which to explore new ideas and to have a training ground for what living in the real world is like.
I am so sick of helicopter parenting and over protecting our kids. The world is, has been and always be a tough scary place. PREPARING our children for those realities and equipping them to understand why it is and how to protect themselves is our job as parents. If we shelter children from responsibility and reality we do them a massive disservice. A college or university is not a therapeutic environment. If you have serious issues they should be taken seriously; but it is not the university's responsibility to get you the help you need. It is the parents' responsibility. College is one of the few places in which to safely discover what the world is really like; to be able to share your feelings about it with peers; and to prepare oneself for living in it safely and productively (and if you are lucky, happily.)
I am so sick of helicopter parenting and over protecting our kids. The world is, has been and always be a tough scary place. PREPARING our children for those realities and equipping them to understand why it is and how to protect themselves is our job as parents. If we shelter children from responsibility and reality we do them a massive disservice. A college or university is not a therapeutic environment. If you have serious issues they should be taken seriously; but it is not the university's responsibility to get you the help you need. It is the parents' responsibility. College is one of the few places in which to safely discover what the world is really like; to be able to share your feelings about it with peers; and to prepare oneself for living in it safely and productively (and if you are lucky, happily.)
5
I shudder to think how this generation of self-coddling silly people would deal with something truly dangerous, such as, oh, let's see, the threat of invasion, the 1918 flu epidemic, or the onset of the Great Depression. There is great potential for parody here, but actual parody of these people might be redundant.
7
I hope all the people at Brandeis responsible for cancelling Ayaan Hirsi Ali's speech last year are reading this article and its 500 comments.
15
I teach large lecture classes in a large Texas university. Before I show photos or videos to the class related to graphic violence of any type, I always give them a heads up. Sometimes students leave the classroom at that time, but usually most of them stay. I do think we need to face our demons, but at our own pace, and sometimes it just takes a moment to prepare.
8
Speaking of "safe spaces" apparently Governor Crist thinks he can make Florida safe from reality.
This closing of half the population's minds from inconvenient truths is not going to benefit us all. We have to face the future, and reality is full of obstacles to those who deny reality. In Russia they sent a lot of dissenters to the Gulag.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/18/florida-suspends-employee-for-sa...
"Florida Suspends Employee For Saying ‘Climate Change,’ Orders Psych Evaluation Before He Can Return
"After news broke that Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott’s administration had forbid state employees from using the phrase “climate change” during official business, many conservatives claimed that people were overreacting. After all, they reasoned, Rick Scott wouldn’t seriously punish scientists for talking about climate change.
"Oh yes, he would."
"a Land Management Plan Coordinator named Bart Bibler has already been suspended without pay for mentioning in his notes that climate change was discussed at an environmental meeting. His “Official Written Reprimand” cites things like “insubordination” and “conduct unbecoming a public employee.”"
"Later the letter asks Bibler to hereby abstain from inserting “any personal agenda or political advocacy into the work you perform” and to “remain unbiased and impartial, and focused on the issues at hand.”"
This closing of half the population's minds from inconvenient truths is not going to benefit us all. We have to face the future, and reality is full of obstacles to those who deny reality. In Russia they sent a lot of dissenters to the Gulag.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/18/florida-suspends-employee-for-sa...
"Florida Suspends Employee For Saying ‘Climate Change,’ Orders Psych Evaluation Before He Can Return
"After news broke that Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott’s administration had forbid state employees from using the phrase “climate change” during official business, many conservatives claimed that people were overreacting. After all, they reasoned, Rick Scott wouldn’t seriously punish scientists for talking about climate change.
"Oh yes, he would."
"a Land Management Plan Coordinator named Bart Bibler has already been suspended without pay for mentioning in his notes that climate change was discussed at an environmental meeting. His “Official Written Reprimand” cites things like “insubordination” and “conduct unbecoming a public employee.”"
"Later the letter asks Bibler to hereby abstain from inserting “any personal agenda or political advocacy into the work you perform” and to “remain unbiased and impartial, and focused on the issues at hand.”"
10
As a father, as a (gracefully & a little defiantly) aging boomer, I thank you Judith Shulevitz; I thank you for having the courage to pen such a timely piece that must surely put you in as much danger as if you'd mocked the prophet or, say, Obama's March madness bracket.
This child of the 60's is on his knees giving thanks to you; I thank my mother and father for arming me with curiosity and confidence and for having the incredible courage to let the world take me from their nest; I thank my teachers and professors for daring to expose me to new and often alien ideas; I thank every single person who ever frightened me & threatened me or wounded me, by word or physical threat, and taught me the meaning of strength and courage and character...and I am eternally grateful for every experience that ever challenged a notion or a belief, that helped me to understand that genuine love and joy cannot be fully realized without having also experienced uncertainty, despair and loss. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
This child of the 60's is on his knees giving thanks to you; I thank my mother and father for arming me with curiosity and confidence and for having the incredible courage to let the world take me from their nest; I thank my teachers and professors for daring to expose me to new and often alien ideas; I thank every single person who ever frightened me & threatened me or wounded me, by word or physical threat, and taught me the meaning of strength and courage and character...and I am eternally grateful for every experience that ever challenged a notion or a belief, that helped me to understand that genuine love and joy cannot be fully realized without having also experienced uncertainty, despair and loss. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
7
Sounds like a bunch of spoiled brats to me. On the assumption that their parents can afford the high cost of a college education they've already had a privileged and sheltered life. If these attitudes and practices continue they're sure to experience genuine trauma once they segue out into the real world where they won't be pampered. They will then probably blame the college for not having adequately educated them.
7
UC Berkeley President Clark Kerr, in his 1961 Charter Day address said: "The University does not exist to make ideas safe for students. It exists to make students safe for ideas."
Too bad we've forgotten that goal.
Too bad we've forgotten that goal.
19
This becomes an issue when the university yields to these types of demands out of fear. It is the universities job to close the door on any attempts to dilute intellectual thought or open debate.
4
I don't know why anyone might be surprised at this sort of attack on free speech under the guise of 'safety.' It's the result of overbearing parents, schools and the law believing their children are special, fragile and constantly in danger. They need to be shielded from anything unpleasant so their self-esteem doesn't suffer and they aren't offended. They can't walk to school, play in the park without supervision, draw a picture of a gun, sell lemonade without a permit... the list goes on. They really have no grasp of what free speech means.
7
people who want to exercise their right to free speech should speak, not spew
vitriol. college debates *ought* to have standards of behavior for speakers.
vitriol. college debates *ought* to have standards of behavior for speakers.
If any person or any group of people wants a safe space for ANY reason (that you may not know or understand), WHAT do you people care? I guess I'm shocked by the arrogance of most commenters here. If there is a victim of crime, PTSD, etc., who is just a fellow human being seeking out a place of comfort instead of conflict, I for one support them 100%. Actively choosing to find a place where they feel safe over facing a situation that could re-traumatize them is actually quite intelligent. Perhaps when this person is ready, the will enter the conversation or situation - until then, what business exactly is it of yours?
2
While I applaud the fostering of compassion, and caring enough to make another comfortable, the outcome of being too well insulated is often to focus on oneself and one's own needs instead of the needs of others. A person who avoids all risk of harm may stay safe, but they cannot grow--risk is inherent in change. Our universities exist to help people learn about life, with all its warts, and to prepare students to contribute to making the world a better place--to change it. These students are our future leaders and voters. They cannot fix a wrong they cannot see.
5
I general I agree with this piece (or at the very least the central thrust of it), so I am sorry that I am about to be nit-picky.
"Still, it’s disconcerting to see students clamor for a kind of intrusive supervision that would have outraged students a few generations ago. But those were hardier souls. Now students’ needs are anticipated by a small army of service professionals — mental health counselors, student-life deans and the like. "
Could we please not lump mental health services into this discussion? Isn't there enough of a stigma already around getting that sort of help? There is a profound difference between not wanting to confront difficult ideas and having a medical condition like depression.
"Still, it’s disconcerting to see students clamor for a kind of intrusive supervision that would have outraged students a few generations ago. But those were hardier souls. Now students’ needs are anticipated by a small army of service professionals — mental health counselors, student-life deans and the like. "
Could we please not lump mental health services into this discussion? Isn't there enough of a stigma already around getting that sort of help? There is a profound difference between not wanting to confront difficult ideas and having a medical condition like depression.
4
I have recently read of several instances wherein discussions of rape have been curtailed, or participants banned, because of "upsetting" points of view expressed. I know what the problem is: our children are not being taught how to "use their words." People who are not articulate enough to express their thoughts and feelings invariably choke up and become frustrated, unable to communicate -- and equally invariably, blame the other party for bringing up "upsetting" aspects of an issue. You can see this on the Internet, all day every day, where people rant at each other without ever discussing anything because the tools for debate are simply not available to them. It's really a shame, but it's what we get for ignoring education in this country, spending our money on weapons instead.
8
Maybe it's because I am a scientist, but I prefer hearing ideas and thoughts that are different from mine. I tend to read the op-ed pieces from opposing viewpoints first, and if I have the time I'll then read the thoughts of my own political tribe. I also much prefer discussions with people who hold views that are very different from mine. I learn much more from these than I do from just agreeing with a bunch of like-minded people.
Science is best done in a contentious environment. A claim that stands up to hard questions is more likely to be correct. I carry this into the rest of my life, along with the understanding that disagreement is good, interesting, and healthy. I assume everyone is trying to do their best based on their own experiences and hard-wiring, so I don't hate people because of their ideas or beliefs, nor do I don't feel threatened.
I can't imagine college life without this essential contention; or any life for that matter. It's often through argument, debate and discussion that we make progress. Calling one room a safe place suggests that the next room is dangerous. And since we assign the cause of that danger to the occupant in the room, we turn what might be an otherwise productive discussion into a good vs. evil battle between people. There's nowhere good to go with that.
Science is best done in a contentious environment. A claim that stands up to hard questions is more likely to be correct. I carry this into the rest of my life, along with the understanding that disagreement is good, interesting, and healthy. I assume everyone is trying to do their best based on their own experiences and hard-wiring, so I don't hate people because of their ideas or beliefs, nor do I don't feel threatened.
I can't imagine college life without this essential contention; or any life for that matter. It's often through argument, debate and discussion that we make progress. Calling one room a safe place suggests that the next room is dangerous. And since we assign the cause of that danger to the occupant in the room, we turn what might be an otherwise productive discussion into a good vs. evil battle between people. There's nowhere good to go with that.
14
blah blah blah. You spend your money so have every right to run & hide or stay & contend. Once out into the real world no one will give that the time of day. Adaptability doesn't come from head in the ground or eyes on the stars. Straight on and power through. Coddle yourself at your own peril. Using college years as a hideout comes at a greater cost than mere tuition. Boredom is greatest danger of education as well as life. Running from a large classroom is a sign of being internally boring. That's a real winning formula for engaging with others!
This is what things have come to? Win by out boring, hmmm.
This is what things have come to? Win by out boring, hmmm.
1
If you think all students and their parents want this, think again. Go to a large state university (same admin, same stupidity, same high cost) and check with the students in the hard sciences, business, engineering. None of them want this and they are sick of the constant mandatory lectures. Especially the fresh man. When my daughter was a freshman and was at the mandatory meeting, she objected that no one who had good manners would ever say anything racist or 'mean' against anyone and anyhow, they all had gone to K12 together. She got a standing ovation. After that check out the social sciences and the other grievance centers. You'll see who wants this stuff.
4
It feels to me like there are two levels. At one level, we have the issue of balancing tolerance, freedom, and individual conviction. A hard problem worthy of the effort it takes to improve.
On the other level, I wonder if we as a society are responding to economic inequalities by feeling "unsafe" and needing all these safe places to exchange ideas. We substitute an existential fear over which we have little control (wages) with one in which we do (discussion forums). If the CEOs of America would give everyone below them 10% raises, I wonder if much of the hypersensitivity here would go away.
That would leave us with the worthy 1st problem in its proper perspective.
On the other level, I wonder if we as a society are responding to economic inequalities by feeling "unsafe" and needing all these safe places to exchange ideas. We substitute an existential fear over which we have little control (wages) with one in which we do (discussion forums). If the CEOs of America would give everyone below them 10% raises, I wonder if much of the hypersensitivity here would go away.
That would leave us with the worthy 1st problem in its proper perspective.
I am actually convinced that our college students (and I have been teaching since the early 80's) have become more anxious, less resilient, and more dependent on their parents and teachers, for daily input, advice,and feedback. They are dreadfully fearful, although statistics do not bear out their fears. This article is a nice supplement to last week's piece on "free range parenting." Helicopter parenting has resulted in many young adults who see themselves as incapable of handling stresses of any kind. They need constant intervention, trigger warnings, and protection. I fear for their ability to cope, if in fact, they ever actually move out of their parents' houses.
7
Isnt there a wide middle ground between isolating students from offensive speech or ideas and encouraging hateful or offensive speech? Perhaps the problem lies with lazy or unimaginative school administrators.
But there is one important lesson for students exposed to this kind of overprotection: In the "real world" of work and career, deliberately offensive speech diminishes the productivity of the team. It is counterproductive and those who don't understand that don't get rewarded. So perhaps the observant student will learn how to identify offensive speech.
But there is one important lesson for students exposed to this kind of overprotection: In the "real world" of work and career, deliberately offensive speech diminishes the productivity of the team. It is counterproductive and those who don't understand that don't get rewarded. So perhaps the observant student will learn how to identify offensive speech.
1
These children are afraid of life itself. Mandatory community service would help. Maybe they could visit detainees or babysit children for parents attending community college or take meals to the elderly, etc. If they are concerned with sexual assault, why not help victims of human trafficking?
Daycare for healthy young adults with abundant resources is decadent and shameful.
Daycare for healthy young adults with abundant resources is decadent and shameful.
9
Ms. Shulevitz raises important concerns as these relate to an environment intended to stimulate peripatetic personal development and institutional growth. In an era when 15- to 25-yr-olds find themselves increasingly dependent on others for basic economic survival, is it any wonder that many college students today are increasingly risk- and conflict-averse.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area where I am surrounded by the overtly sensitive and those who would promote the agendas so boldly brought to light in this article. My early years at U.C. Berkeley were enlightening because of the exploration of controversial ideas - we basked in the light provided by the Free Speech movement which had its roots at Sproul Plaza with the ghost of Mario Savio hovering over us. I fear now that subjects we openly debated would be quashed in the current environment, to the detriment of all, even those who fear even discussing scary ideas.
7
I agree with you for the most part, however, as a college student in the years just following that period (early 1970's) I saw what i believe to be the early roots of this problem. Many colleges would either not invite, or dis-invite, speakers who's beliefs did not correspond to the more liberal world view that was arising, or if they were invited to speak, they were shouted down rather than listened to.
Even then, I was of the opinion that I would rather hear someone who held the opposite viewpoint from myself. I will never learn anything new by listening to someone who says the same thing as I do, while an opponent may have something new to say and may even change my opinion about something. It is the latter thought that I think many are afraid of, that the opposition may have a good idea that challenges the listener's comfortably held beliefs and may actually force them to think about something instead of reacting.
Even then, I was of the opinion that I would rather hear someone who held the opposite viewpoint from myself. I will never learn anything new by listening to someone who says the same thing as I do, while an opponent may have something new to say and may even change my opinion about something. It is the latter thought that I think many are afraid of, that the opposition may have a good idea that challenges the listener's comfortably held beliefs and may actually force them to think about something instead of reacting.
2
As a parent of two kids in middle school, who will likely go to college one day, this is so depressing to read. Universities have always been considered insulated from society and a place where experimentation and controversy could be given some opportunity to express themselves. But this has been taken to extreme. One of the reasons to go to college was to take one step closer to being a rational, productive adult. The events presented in this article are clearly working against this goal.
4
Sometimes the experiences that trigger are what help heal you, jolt you out of the fetal position of trauma. Further, great art, debates, experiencing different cultures: the whole nine yards of getting out of one's comfort zone. How are these over sheltered college kids going to cope with the raw world after graduation? It seems that an increasingly sheepish Orwellian world awaits
6
This is a perfect example of the rambling psycho-philo-pseudointellectual babble that has divorced academia from the general public. Its the reason why "Occupy Wall Street" and other modern student movements have had zero transcendence and are simply a soup of disjointed, disorganized and mostly fruitless ideas.
4
Life is not safe. It never has been and I hope it never is. Facing our fears and feelings about issues and attitudes that upset, or even scare us is the path to maturity.
5
One thing the safe space movement needs to understand is that college is already a relatively safe space. The rate of incidence of rape on campuses is significantly less than it is for the same age group outside of college. The rate of anti-gay crimes is significantly less on campus. The incidents of racism (despite the video of the frat song) on campus fall far short of what happens in the rest of the country. Anybody with access to an internet search engine should be able to learn these points without much trouble.
With colleges already shielding students quite a bit from the harsh realities of the adult world, the worry should be that further shielding will leave students completely unprepared for reality after graduation. If words are too damaging for these students to hear, they should probably live alone in a shack in the woods or never take off their headphones.
With colleges already shielding students quite a bit from the harsh realities of the adult world, the worry should be that further shielding will leave students completely unprepared for reality after graduation. If words are too damaging for these students to hear, they should probably live alone in a shack in the woods or never take off their headphones.
5
So the universities cannot create a "hostile environment" except for those who would exercise their First Amendment rights by speaking about controversial issues.
4
Most responses here seem to be of the free speech should rule/ the nanny state is overtaking us type. But isn't it in the mission of education to allow all students, not just those with the loudest voices, to be heard? I think what these "safe spacers" are asking for is both to reduce the shrill nature of the all this speech and to communicate their own ideas without needing to shout others down. Not everyone wants to be so confrontational. Our current communication culture is very aggressive, but that does not mean everyone should just ratchet up the volume even more and shout back. I believe this so labeled "victimization" movement is a way for some to push back against the aggressive nature of those loud voices in society (freest speech often= most $) who trumpet their point of view and are ready to personally vilify anyone who dares have a different idea.
1
I think you recognize the 'middle ground' of discussion and debate. I am a quiet person, but - for some reason - I enjoy a loud fist waving political 'match'. I also know there it a time and place AND it's not for everyone. When I'm in a modest environment, I behave as such. As with most things - we can have it our way - just not every time and every where. But the "safe" thing seems more like these people need the kindness of therapy, not political dialogue.
"She lives under constant threat, Ms. El Rhazoui said. The student answered that she felt threatened, too."
In the quest for a "safe space", we've erased the line between situations like Zineb's - surviving a massive terrorist attack and receiving constant and very real death threats from ISIS supporters - and this student's, who...feels threatened too?
"Safe space" rhetoric, and its assortment of "threatening," "micro-aggressions," "unsafe" is being used today to control who may or may not speak, despite whatever good intentions "safe spaces" may have had originally.
Individuals, and universities especially, must recognize this trend for what it is - manipulation and infringement on free speech - and reject it immediately.
You can watch the video of the entire talk here (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXCMA2DtRXQ
In the quest for a "safe space", we've erased the line between situations like Zineb's - surviving a massive terrorist attack and receiving constant and very real death threats from ISIS supporters - and this student's, who...feels threatened too?
"Safe space" rhetoric, and its assortment of "threatening," "micro-aggressions," "unsafe" is being used today to control who may or may not speak, despite whatever good intentions "safe spaces" may have had originally.
Individuals, and universities especially, must recognize this trend for what it is - manipulation and infringement on free speech - and reject it immediately.
You can watch the video of the entire talk here (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXCMA2DtRXQ
9
Why are college students such wimps they cannot face debate or differences of opinion?
Look at the same age group that is in the military and rarely will you find folks demanding their drill instructors not raise their voices because it is threatening.
College students that demand coddling as we would provide elementary school kids should be given that coddling when they give up their right to vote and even drink if they still need such swaddling at 21.
Look at the same age group that is in the military and rarely will you find folks demanding their drill instructors not raise their voices because it is threatening.
College students that demand coddling as we would provide elementary school kids should be given that coddling when they give up their right to vote and even drink if they still need such swaddling at 21.
8
How else can the elite colleges prepare many of their students for Fox News and the Wall Street Journal and I'm not being one sided. I have had long- time friends (and were talking adults) refuse to even talk to me about what to them is a controversial idea. We have lost, as a society ,the ability to discuss things rationally.Thank god for C-Span which regularly features several different viewpoints over the weekend(Book TV).I think that the excessive focus on science and math which I applaud in some ways has taken away exposure to history and philosophy which teach a different kind of critical thinking.A kind of critical thinking that may be the most important way to preserve a free and open society.
4
I tremble for my country. We have produced a generation of sheep. In my day, we had student movements that understood what freedom was all about. From Joan Baez, for instance ("Donna, Donna"):
"Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why
But whoever treasures freedom
Like the swallow has learned to fly"
"Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why
But whoever treasures freedom
Like the swallow has learned to fly"
8
My daughter's preschool utilizes a concept similar to the "safe space" sought by today's elite college students.
8
Adam Shapiro's a smart kid. I agree completely with his insight that classrooms have become far too 'safe' for intellectual vigor in investigating and understanding social, political and economic realities. Every perspective needs to be honestly examined. Back in the late 1960s, social theory was very accepting of a middle-class white explanation of poverty, and criticism from others pushed research to look at new explanations. Now, the "PC" climate that at first led to breakthroughs has itself become a set of blinkers limiting our discussions and our understanding. No college student has ever been 'forced' to listen to a lecture offered outside of a regular class - time for these kids and this generation of instructors and administrators - to grow up and figure out how to live with differences.
7
Ms. Byron is the natural result of over-protective, helicopter parenting. These parents don't want their precious "snowflakes" to take standardized tests because they might reveal that junior is not as smart as mom thought. Junior-Messi was demoted from the "A team" to the "B team"?! That is most surely a reason to band together with other scorned moms and boycott the team altogether! Junior-Meryl didn't get the lead in the school play?! Well then, junior-Meryl (and her friends!) won't be part of such unprofessional play! How dare them to junior she is not perfect!
Protected all the way to college and beyond. Shame on Brown for abandoning it's duty to educate. I will not be sending my daughters to this second-rate-college-in-the-making.
Protected all the way to college and beyond. Shame on Brown for abandoning it's duty to educate. I will not be sending my daughters to this second-rate-college-in-the-making.
14
The question is how should one develop to maturity in the world? Is it better to strengthen the individual so they can deal with the hostile environment, or is it better to eliminate the hostile environment? While I am all for making the world a less hostile place, at least for now, a much more realistic strategy is to strengthen the individual by giving them the tools with which to deal with that environment. College should be about strengthening the individual, not coddling them. Coddling them will only make them vulnerable when they leave the cloistered atmosphere on the college campus, and that is doing them a disservice.
7
I mean no disrespect to anyone, but I'm really puzzled.
If I was a student on campus at Coddled U, and as a survivor of some form of personal trauma I was alerted to a speaker coming to campus to speak about the subject in a way that I sensed might be upsetting----instead of feeling the need to go to a "safe room"....why wouldn't I just go to the library to study, or stay in my room, or go to the gym to swim or work out, or go to a movie...??? It just seems like so much effort devoted to being....pointless. When I was in college, people trying this hard to be different and get noticed would wear one orange sock and one green sock; now it's safe rooms.
If I was a student on campus at Coddled U, and as a survivor of some form of personal trauma I was alerted to a speaker coming to campus to speak about the subject in a way that I sensed might be upsetting----instead of feeling the need to go to a "safe room"....why wouldn't I just go to the library to study, or stay in my room, or go to the gym to swim or work out, or go to a movie...??? It just seems like so much effort devoted to being....pointless. When I was in college, people trying this hard to be different and get noticed would wear one orange sock and one green sock; now it's safe rooms.
10
Privilege, insulation, and assumptions that everyone
else should look like, think like, and have all privilege I have. Don't confront the "unpleasant" in travel or everyday life.
Brown epitomizes this stance toward the world.
So unfortunate.
else should look like, think like, and have all privilege I have. Don't confront the "unpleasant" in travel or everyday life.
Brown epitomizes this stance toward the world.
So unfortunate.
10
Thank you for your insight. It's refreshing to read a thoughtful, well written rebuttal to the nonsense that poses as the pinnacle of the supposedly-enlightened effort to make our universities no more than an extension of the pillow fort. As a parent of two teens, I want them to feel safe enough to be challenged academically when they attend college; but they know, even now, that the world is indifferent to their more childish sensitivities and"safe space" is self created. My 27 year old daughter is successful, tough as nails and learned to create her own "safe space" as well. Do I worry about their safety? Of course I do, as every sane parent does. The difference is that their Mom and I have taught them that the world cares not for the over-indulged, rather it views such weakness as the role of prey. I wonder if the parents of these fragile children have invested in enough crayons and puppy videos to carry them into their golden years?
3
We have replaced the PC movement with a “free speech” movement that supports the rights of the speaker and not only shows no consideration for those who have been victimized, but mocks them. I have yet to see an article that addresses the needs of both intelligently. Fact is, the problems of sexual abuse and racism are much bigger than that of free speech right now, and the widespread traumas caused by both are just beginning to be acknowledged.
1
Presumably free cookies, bubbles, and Play-Doh, and only a couple dozen people took advantage of it? What's wrong with these kids?
4
As an educator of nearly 40 years, now a professor, I can attest to the fact that there are now a sizable number of students/ parents who wish to make college an echo chamber for their particular beliefs and values. The purpose of college, as they see it, is to attain a credential but not to be transformed as a person.
While they are most often rabid tea party style "conservatives" there are also some from the Left as well.
This attitude and the corporate commodification of college education are producing graduates who have never been "stressed" by opinions other than their own. They have no experience in engaging the "other" and have never had their minds opened to any new possibilities -which of course is the very purpose of a liberal arts college education.
They are usually products of standardized public education and can see no further than a cookbook curriculum designed never to offend. They come to college unprepared for discourse and almost ready for the cubicle farm sans the necessary college credential .
The college classroom is one of the last places where a vibrant and diverse discourse may occur in our increasingly polarized nation. We now live in Red and Blue States, socialize on discussion boards that agree with our views and even get our "news" from different sources. The homogenized college classroom is the inevitable result of this polarization and the ever encroaching hegemony of neo-liberal corporatization of the nations schools and universities.
While they are most often rabid tea party style "conservatives" there are also some from the Left as well.
This attitude and the corporate commodification of college education are producing graduates who have never been "stressed" by opinions other than their own. They have no experience in engaging the "other" and have never had their minds opened to any new possibilities -which of course is the very purpose of a liberal arts college education.
They are usually products of standardized public education and can see no further than a cookbook curriculum designed never to offend. They come to college unprepared for discourse and almost ready for the cubicle farm sans the necessary college credential .
The college classroom is one of the last places where a vibrant and diverse discourse may occur in our increasingly polarized nation. We now live in Red and Blue States, socialize on discussion boards that agree with our views and even get our "news" from different sources. The homogenized college classroom is the inevitable result of this polarization and the ever encroaching hegemony of neo-liberal corporatization of the nations schools and universities.
12
This concept of "safe spaces" is entirely alien to the our sacred values, particularly freedom of speech. I have found that most people who want to silence the speech of others have no confidence in the truth of their own ideas. As a free people we have a duty to promote the unfettered exchange of ideas. That college campuses are the epicenter of the erosion of the ideals of free speech is nauseating and depressing.
12
As a trauma survivor, one of the main things therapists have helped me to accomplish is to learn how to make my own "safe space," by trying to put everything I encounter in its proper context, to be aware of my reactions, and progressively train myself to be less sensitive to my environment. Yes, difficult encounters with people in power sometimes remind me of my abusive parents, but I have practiced how to be aware of that, and I have become less and less triggered by these situations over time. It's not the world's job to make itself more tolerable to me; it's my job to learn to better tolerate the world.
19
The issues involved are complex and I believe strongly that the universities make every effort to try to balance free speech with a desire to protect its students from bullies. In an opinion piece all we get is a lot of hyperbole, exaggerations of the actual situations made to support a point, and comments meant to support or refute the point. It would be so great if these subjects could be reported as news, with at least an attempt to provide a balanced argument about the challenges universities face and how they deal with it, often inadequately but with good intentions. We want students to be exposed to a range of viewpoints, but not trapped without the opportunity to voice opposition.
2
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.
No one who can not say that can be said to have a liberal education in the humanities. Those unready to look squarely into the face of humanity with curiosity--a face with both love and hate, tenderness and cruelty, creativity and wanton destructiveness, are not ready for a real education.
They should find some place more appropriate for a self-imprisoned mind than a university.
Those with histories that make this difficult yet have the courage to make the attempt might employ a therapist to help. They in no event have the authority to demand that the world act as their therapist.
No one who can not say that can be said to have a liberal education in the humanities. Those unready to look squarely into the face of humanity with curiosity--a face with both love and hate, tenderness and cruelty, creativity and wanton destructiveness, are not ready for a real education.
They should find some place more appropriate for a self-imprisoned mind than a university.
Those with histories that make this difficult yet have the courage to make the attempt might employ a therapist to help. They in no event have the authority to demand that the world act as their therapist.
7
I have a book of Buddhist essays that has a beautiful title: "Not Turning Away". I often find, as an animal rights person, that people do not want to look at pictures of animals laid out for vivisection, or in slaughterhouses, or rescued from dogfighting or cockfighting or puppy mills, or hit with prods and barbs to train them to 'dance' and do tricks for entertainment. Why do you show me these things? they say. It upsets me to look at them. To which the only possible reply is - the day it no longer upsets you to look at them is the day I will despair; the day I no longer have pictures like these to show you is the day I will rejoice.
Don't turn away. Fight.
Don't turn away. Fight.
2
This is one more reason, along with fraternities, sororities, and college sports, to doubt the value of a college "education" beyond its functions of enabling one to get a job working in a cubicle and maybe making some useful connections with future billionaires. If those are your goals, then go, by all means, and then pay your debts. If you want an eduction, skip the college nonsense, get a library card, read as much and as widely as possible, and make friends with interesting people you'll meet occasionally in bookstores, coffee shops, and bars. You might not make a lot of money in life, but you won't feel like your first big investment of time and money was a waste.
6
A professor for a basic (required) English course in college required us to read literary prices, essentially, on the topic of "the many ways you can kill, molest, and abuse a child." I got the message (a-Don't abuse, b-If you suspect abuse, report it) but walked out of that class so many times because the discussion topics were tearing me up more than a grade reduction (B) ever could.
Just saying, things would have been okay if he'd balanced it out, but the course was not on that topic and it was day in and day out. I think I started skimming through the readings as they got increasingly violent.
So, to professors, be mindful of the course description when selecting reading material.
Just saying, things would have been okay if he'd balanced it out, but the course was not on that topic and it was day in and day out. I think I started skimming through the readings as they got increasingly violent.
So, to professors, be mindful of the course description when selecting reading material.
5
Maybe everyone needs to take a little step back here. There are no doubt always people everywhere of all ages who want to shut their ears to ideas that contradict their own--Fox News has built an empire on this fact. But isn't it possible that what is registered in some of these instances is that some students feel their experiences and points of view are being ignored? Isn't it also possible, since these are students, after all, that they don't always feel like they have the power or the capacities to express that fact? Let's take one of the examples here, the U of C talk. A Muslim student of 20 has grown up in our post-9/11 world; she has no doubt heard from friends and family about anti-Muslim profiling and worse. It's not unlikely she's experienced them herself. This sounds like it was an occasion and environment in which it was very hard to come up and say, look, I don't want anyone killed for drawings, but je ne suis pas Charlie, non plus! Here's why! To say this might well have enriched the discussion in precisely the ways university environments should. It us up to all of us on campuses to model this kind of behavior, affording opportunities for analysis, critique, and for the recognition of the ways in which silencing and marginalization happens, almost imperceptibly sometimes, and inevitably to all our detriment.
6
You are forgetting that the power of the "Je suis Charlie" cover was t he tear, not the headline.
If you are offended by that, then, perhaps, it is appropriate that you are.
If you are offended by that, then, perhaps, it is appropriate that you are.
1
I think the first vignette given here was something to be celebrated, not bronx-cheered as pampering wimps. The rape debaters were allowed to debate rape. Those who wanted to hear the debate got to hear. Those having suffered the trauma of rape were given the support they need. Everyone could voice their opinions and have their needs met.
Solutions like this are just what is needed to save Ms. Shulevitz and the rest of the sanctimonious free-speech tough guys commenting here the trauma of having to worry about whether or not their right to express the white guy opinion will be infringed.
As pointed out many places before, one of the beautiful things about our nation - a beauty born only in the last couple of generations - is that we want to allow anyone, from any part of the world, of any religion or sexual origin, to fully participate in America. To fully participate, one must be seen as "normal". To be "normal" one's sensitivities must be protected. For too long, the only sensitivities protected were those of straight white guys like me. (If you add "Christian" I'm out too.)
Universities are trying harder than anyone else to make sure that everyone knows that their ambitions and ideas can be realized as society will accept them for who they are. This takes a lot of work. A lot of consideration of what you're saying and why you think it. If you're lazy, the need to do all of this consideration infuriates you. The lazy hate work.
Solutions like this are just what is needed to save Ms. Shulevitz and the rest of the sanctimonious free-speech tough guys commenting here the trauma of having to worry about whether or not their right to express the white guy opinion will be infringed.
As pointed out many places before, one of the beautiful things about our nation - a beauty born only in the last couple of generations - is that we want to allow anyone, from any part of the world, of any religion or sexual origin, to fully participate in America. To fully participate, one must be seen as "normal". To be "normal" one's sensitivities must be protected. For too long, the only sensitivities protected were those of straight white guys like me. (If you add "Christian" I'm out too.)
Universities are trying harder than anyone else to make sure that everyone knows that their ambitions and ideas can be realized as society will accept them for who they are. This takes a lot of work. A lot of consideration of what you're saying and why you think it. If you're lazy, the need to do all of this consideration infuriates you. The lazy hate work.
5
"...Universities are trying harder than anyone else..."
Which leads us to the saddest part of this whole matter...
...they are failing miserably when they restrict one on the sole grounds that another is uncomfortable.
Which leads us to the saddest part of this whole matter...
...they are failing miserably when they restrict one on the sole grounds that another is uncomfortable.
This trend may have begun in high schools, or we may have been adopting something grade schools already used, who knows? In my last years teaching in high school, teachers could volunteer to have their rooms designated a "safe room," a place to come to when one felt bullied or overwhelmed by one emotion or another. There were actual signs on the doors designating those rooms as safe and a big campaign to introduce the practice. No surprise that the teachers who volunteered were themselves emotionally fragile, including one who ultimately had a nervous breakdown on grounds, had to be removed, and in the years that followed threatened several teachers and all the administrators.
I now teach in adult education, where adults are anyone over 18, and many come from some place we have made quite unsafe, Iraq in particular, or their own governments made unsafe, Eritrea, for instance. We're in real trouble if our country ever has to face something as serious as war within our borders or serious economic collapse or widespread deprivation caused by climate collapse.
I now teach in adult education, where adults are anyone over 18, and many come from some place we have made quite unsafe, Iraq in particular, or their own governments made unsafe, Eritrea, for instance. We're in real trouble if our country ever has to face something as serious as war within our borders or serious economic collapse or widespread deprivation caused by climate collapse.
8
The difference is coddling different groups get should also be addressed.
Anti-Jewish bigotry is allowed on campus while students are expelled for anti-black sentiment expressed off campus. Look at the support professor Steve Salatia got when the University of Illinois declined to hiring him due to hate speech against Jews and Israel on twitter. Compare that to the lack of support those frat boys at University of Oklahoma got for their off campus remarks that offended blacks. Even the media referred to the latter as "racist" while referring to Salatia's remarks as "criticizing Israel" despite his remarks going far past criticism and into downright hate speech.
Student's has learned to see women, gays, blacks and Muslims as protected vulnerable groups that can not be slighted while anti-Jewish bigotry is seen as noble and worthy of defending.
Anti-Jewish bigotry is allowed on campus while students are expelled for anti-black sentiment expressed off campus. Look at the support professor Steve Salatia got when the University of Illinois declined to hiring him due to hate speech against Jews and Israel on twitter. Compare that to the lack of support those frat boys at University of Oklahoma got for their off campus remarks that offended blacks. Even the media referred to the latter as "racist" while referring to Salatia's remarks as "criticizing Israel" despite his remarks going far past criticism and into downright hate speech.
Student's has learned to see women, gays, blacks and Muslims as protected vulnerable groups that can not be slighted while anti-Jewish bigotry is seen as noble and worthy of defending.
3
I considered the university library my safe space and found useful information to sort through my trauma. So much to read; so much to learn. One author leads to another. Then too, there's much to discuss when meeting up with one or two others as the rooms cleared after debates and lectures. So many ideas to examine! Then again, I was there as a secretary, single mom, auditing for free. University customers may have a different experience in an increasingly corporatized environment.
5
grateful that there were no safe spaces when the early career malcolm x came to my school...grumbly crowd, fbi standees at the back of the hall, palpable tension (very few of us white)...not long after came james baldwin, kurt vonnegut and sun ra, john cage, and, oh yes, martin luther king (replete with demonstrations from which there was no escape short of leaving the campus) not to mention the voices for and against the viet nam farrago (more demonstrations, with police oversight)....what sticks is the power of ideas, the allure of engagement, the test of face-to-face exchange...not always comfortable, and at times, not nearly safe.
while there is no denying fragile sensibilities and vulnerability, shelter from challenge may not be the best way for institutions committed to inquiry to met the demands of critical thinking toward discovery and advancement of ideas and their expression.
while there is no denying fragile sensibilities and vulnerability, shelter from challenge may not be the best way for institutions committed to inquiry to met the demands of critical thinking toward discovery and advancement of ideas and their expression.
19
Shulevitz's makes her argument on a very limited version of free speech. Setting up safe spaces IS engaging in the debate; it is an act of speech/protest. Telling rape victims and their allies to respect the rights of people who ignore (or tacitly defend) rape culture does nothing to empower youth to engage in debate on their own terms. It rather defends one version of free speech that relies on the big voices, the established voices of "authorities" on the issues, as if rape victims themselves are not authorities.
Drawing attention to speech rights when the topic is rape or racism is a diversion. It often does more to delegitimize those who are on the right side of the issue than participating in fixing the culture of rape or racism. You are absolutely not impinging on someone's right to free speech by asking them to, in all cases, translate the n-word to "the n-word." You are engaging in free speech and exposing the layers to the issue by drawing attention to the subtle powers of language. By protecting the use of that word in some cases (which Shulevitz does here) does so much more to delegitimize the voices of those fighting against racism than it does solve the problem of rape and racism. The enemy is not the one asking for sensitive speech; the enemy is the one who benefits from the distraction of these tangential debates.
Drawing attention to speech rights when the topic is rape or racism is a diversion. It often does more to delegitimize those who are on the right side of the issue than participating in fixing the culture of rape or racism. You are absolutely not impinging on someone's right to free speech by asking them to, in all cases, translate the n-word to "the n-word." You are engaging in free speech and exposing the layers to the issue by drawing attention to the subtle powers of language. By protecting the use of that word in some cases (which Shulevitz does here) does so much more to delegitimize the voices of those fighting against racism than it does solve the problem of rape and racism. The enemy is not the one asking for sensitive speech; the enemy is the one who benefits from the distraction of these tangential debates.
4
Winiznayne wrote " ... delegitimize those who are on the right side of the issue ... the enemy is the one who ..."
Sounds less like a debate and more like an indoctrination.
Sounds less like a debate and more like an indoctrination.
1
I don't know, today's college students seem to be either: (1) totally out of control and operating on the basis of whatever their id tells them to do at the moment, or (2) their over-developed superegos drive them into fits of fear, intolerance, and rage as they inflict their my-way-or-the-highway mind-set on the rights of other students to hear diverse and opposing views and enjoy, if not relish, the academic freedom universities have/had been long celebrated for.
These young fogies, who see themselves as the gatekeepers and "deciders" of what is right and wrong/acceptable and unacceptable for everyone else, appear to be the product of helicopter parents, weak and pandering school administrators, and the cultural and political shift in this country away from democracy and toward authoritarian intolerance.
I taught college for decades, and it is wonderful to see the development and maturing process that occurs in most students from the freshman through the senior years in college.
This is no way to develop into mature, thoughtful, caring adults--and heaven knows, our country could use a lot more of those!
These young fogies, who see themselves as the gatekeepers and "deciders" of what is right and wrong/acceptable and unacceptable for everyone else, appear to be the product of helicopter parents, weak and pandering school administrators, and the cultural and political shift in this country away from democracy and toward authoritarian intolerance.
I taught college for decades, and it is wonderful to see the development and maturing process that occurs in most students from the freshman through the senior years in college.
This is no way to develop into mature, thoughtful, caring adults--and heaven knows, our country could use a lot more of those!
8
My late wife referred to such folks as ninnies.
8
more often than not, it is faculty who encourage this behavior.
8
The damping of competing ideas led to the dark ages.
The friction of competing ideas ignited the Renaissance.
Pick one.
The friction of competing ideas ignited the Renaissance.
Pick one.
24
It's rather obvious that the wrong 18-year olds are getting into college....
4
So, are all these coddled millennials of the "me" generation going to seek out fellow members of their "tribe", and to live out the rest of their lives with like-minded people? Good thing we students of the '60's didn't retreat to our crayon room when confronted with the ugly power of the state and the epithets of pro-war hawks and racists in the anti-Vietnam war and civil rights struggles.
14
The power of the state is uglier now that that Baby Boomers have held the reins of power for several decades. It is Boomer politics that has stitched together the victimhood cloak that their children and grandchildren find so comfortable and reassuring. Let me tell you: at UC Berkeley in the late 1960's and 1970's it was easiest thing in the world to 'resist the evil state.' What took real guts was to argue that abandoning South Vietnam was a despicable moral failure that cost 500,000 boat people's lives on the South China Sea.
2
A truly "safe space" is one where people feel safe expressing viewpoints that some might disagree with, and assume that they will be heard by a sympathetic ear rather than someone looking to prove their own victimization. The idea that victimhood gives someone a morally superior stance, and justifies reactive aggression and bullying, is all too prevalent in contemporary society.
22
We have such a silly propensity for polarity. Of course safety is good. At times. Of course risk is good. At times. Let's make the world safe from narrow thinking! Well sometimes anyway.
2
Employers and professional schools should boycott the Ivies untill they become actual universities again. They might find prestigious credentials to be a disqualification for performance.
7
Based on my 40 years as a college professor, I have reached the conclusion that many of today's college students are not socially or emotionally mature enough to go to college. Worse yet the changes in the way colleges and Universities operate, most students are not really going to college in a meaningful sense. People complain about highly educated immigrants, but they are the ones best intellectually, socially, and emotionally equipped to provide the intellectual and professional leadership to run a developed.country.
21
RG wrote "Based on my 40 years as a college professor, I have reached the conclusion that many of today's college students are not socially or emotionally mature enough to go to college."
Perhaps thats why they go to college? Perhaps that informs what you should teach?
Perhaps thats why they go to college? Perhaps that informs what you should teach?
Here is my question. How are two people who want the world to be a "safer space" ever suppose to have, let alone resolve, a significant disagreement? I am a pretty fragile person but the concept of removing every whiff of offensiveness from the world is beyond absurd. I love having my beliefs challenged to the point I question my own world view. It can be emotionally difficult but I feel I have always come out of it even more secure in my beliefs, sometimes with an altered point of view and sometimes with an unchanged one.
3
So we have on the one hand, college kids who need their university to provide a "safe space" to protect them from difficult concepts and ideas, and then in another, the Yik Yap app which is annoymous digital bullying of other students and professors upending the idea of sharing ideas openly and without fear of retribution in a classroom. Seems like these kids are more diverse than ever and instead of hiding from all of these new ideas and technologies, they would do well to embrace it. We would welcome it once they graduate out of the "safe" university place into the much-less safe workplace.
6
Were the cookies gluten free? Gluten can be triggering to science deniers that think it is bad for you even if you don't have Celiac.
14
Colleges, especially private expensive colleges, are no longer arenas for intellectual development, they are places to develop a taste for trendy food, drink, and consumer goods, and trendy opinions. Unfortunately, the state colleges are also moving in the same direction.
7
I think I now have better insight into the high unemployment rate for recent college graduates. How do these hypersensitive kids ever function in the workplace? Apparently they don't.
7
Something very dainty and Victorian is happening on our campuses. Today's collegians belong to the "wuss generation."
9
Freedom of expression and diversity were hard won battles on campuses in the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps, in their zeal to protect the oppressed, college administrators have overshot the mark.
9
Thank you. What you've described isn't "higher education" - instead, the trend is deeply regressive and hardly deserves the label of "education" at all. The college experience can be very insular, even without trigger warnings and safe places, a place where students don't have to deal with the rough and tumble of post-college life. These young people aren't porcelain dolls and cosseting does them no favor.
15
The group that would benefit most from banning all talk of rape would be, of course, rapists, who would not want any mention of rape in society. The group that would benefit most from banning all talk of racism, slavery, and lynchings would be, of course, the racists who might be embarrassed by the airing of truth about our racist history. The group that would benefit most from banning all talk of war, oppression, and torture would be, of course, the war mongers, oppressors, and torturers. Child molesters would like nothing more than a banning of discussion of child molestation, and Wall Street bandits would like all discussion of their crimes suppressed. Why would victims of crimes want exposure of the crimes suppressed? Who in their right minds would want to protect those who sinned against them by silencing discussion of the sins?
13
Your thinking is far too sophisticated for the college students of today...
And, for that matter, many of the college professors and administrators.
And, for that matter, many of the college professors and administrators.
1
Is it *safe* to assume that the safe space at Brown University was also a peanut free zone?
10
I have no problems with "safe spaces", but you cannot make an entire university "safe" (much less the world). You need to learn what you don't believe in order to understand what you do.
10
Is this for real? My son goes to college this fall; does he need to pack coloring books or Play Doh? Glad this wasn't the trend when we needed the Greatest Generation.
8
the university is supposed to be a forum for exchanging ideas. This politically correct self censorship must stop. The world is not a "safe" place. Growing up means learning to set your own boundaries. Apologizing for not saying what someone else wants you to say is ridiculous. Get over yourselves!
6
No wonder tuition has been rising faster than incomes, the cost of living, inflation, job creation, and practically everything except edifice complex gratification, university administrators, and time students spend looking down and jabbing at gadgets to waste time on "social media" and "games."
How about just being more pro-active when we send our kids off to college? Educate them on how to not put themselves in risky situations especially when alcohol is involved. Having just returned from a family spring break trip I got to see first hand how some college kids act like drunk imbeciles. Both guys and girls.
2
I understand a safe space for someone who has been a victim of a crime. However, "safe spaces" or "advisory tags" because a lecture or a book may contain disturbing ideas or words is absurd not only in college but in the media as well. My generation grew up seeing newsreels of concentration victims as they were found; my children and their generation grew up seeing pictures on the daily news of the horrors of the Viet Nam War. Of course, we were affected by the knowledge of what humans are capable of. But why is that a bad thing? Being aware of evil has not made us hawks or pacifists nor do we live Life in the shadows. Instead that knowledge has made us self-aware...that our actions matter. So we vote, we try to be good citizens, we teach our grandchildren and children similarly, we think before we act--all good things. Knowing the evil that lurks in all of us...all members of the human race....gives us the impetus to strive to be better...to make a better world. Colleges and media take note...unawareness of the dark side guarantees more and deeper darkness.
6
As head of an academic department I recently responded as sensitively as possible to concerns by female students who complained of feeling unsafe in a classroom led by an outspoken, politically incorrect male faculty member, whose vocabulary and assumptions about gender and race they found off-putting. The professor has constructed a thirty-year career with his often offensive style of intellectual banter, but this was the first time I had received such an alarming volume of criticism. I explained to the students that, having grown up queer and closeted in an ultra-conservative, small southern town, I know what feeling "unsafe" means. Revealing too much would quickly (and not surprisingly, in that culture) have led to physical harm, so I kept my mouth shut for decades.
While I am extremely supportive of sustaining intellectual debate while challenging the paternalistic, Anglo-centric, heteronormative paradigms in our culture, I am perplexed by the new definition of the word "unsafe," as its current use diminishes the truly frightening dangers people have historically experienced in our world due to race, gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity at the hands of the privileged and powerful.
The word "unsafe" has assumed a whole new meaning, and I’m concerned that its adoption renders its users unprepared for life’s real dangers.
While I am extremely supportive of sustaining intellectual debate while challenging the paternalistic, Anglo-centric, heteronormative paradigms in our culture, I am perplexed by the new definition of the word "unsafe," as its current use diminishes the truly frightening dangers people have historically experienced in our world due to race, gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity at the hands of the privileged and powerful.
The word "unsafe" has assumed a whole new meaning, and I’m concerned that its adoption renders its users unprepared for life’s real dangers.
23
One of my favorite authors on this very topic is Wendy Mogel, Ph.D., her two books, Blessing of a Skinned Knee, and Blessing of a B-, talk about building resilience by allowing children to fail, to fall down, to experience these micro-traumas. She doesn't directly address this particular issue, but she talks about building resilience in kids and how this generation of parents (and educators) is failing to do so. Colleges have begun referring to these kids "teacups" and "crispies". The fragile and the fried. How will they cope if we keep wrapping them in so much bubble wrap? Great for the pharmaceutical industry I suppose.
The end of the article seems most poignant to me. These kids are becoming so insular that they cannot recognize what real trauma and repression is in the world. Sounds like we're creating a lack of empathy in them. Triggering unpleasantness also opens us up to the possibility of motivating us towards change. If we all go running down our own little cuddly rabbit hole, who will we leave up top?
The end of the article seems most poignant to me. These kids are becoming so insular that they cannot recognize what real trauma and repression is in the world. Sounds like we're creating a lack of empathy in them. Triggering unpleasantness also opens us up to the possibility of motivating us towards change. If we all go running down our own little cuddly rabbit hole, who will we leave up top?
3
I am a college professor at a medium sized university in Michigan. Sadly some students do not come prepared for life away from home. However, life is sometimes hard and there are not "safe" places. College should be a place to exchange ideas and as Phyllis S. states "expand horizons/stretch your mind". As a professor in the College of Business I need to prepare students to move into the workplace and give them the tools to succeed. To me providing safe places do not prepare the student for the real world, which can be a cold harsh place.
4
"They'll be unprepared for the social and intellectual headwinds that hit them as soon as they step off the campuses whose climate they so carefully controlled."
This is what awaits those who have been cocooned all their lives, beginning with their helicoptering parents and then having that primary socialization reinforced during their schooling years, ultimately dooming them to mediocrity at best because of the "lifelong repercussions" that comes with the lifestyle they adopted.
This is what awaits those who have been cocooned all their lives, beginning with their helicoptering parents and then having that primary socialization reinforced during their schooling years, ultimately dooming them to mediocrity at best because of the "lifelong repercussions" that comes with the lifestyle they adopted.
7
Murderous Jihadis have "safe spaces to avoid feeling bombarded by a lot of view points that really go against [their] closely held beliefs", too.
These silly people are a danger to themselves and society.
These silly people are a danger to themselves and society.
8
There are no 'safe spaces'. The lie that there are, or that there can be is positively crippling.
3
It's fortunate that today's college students aren't exposed to the military draft. Drill sergeants would take away their Play-Doh and cookies.
9
People who are constantly coddled and protected never mature. We are not helping these students by always trying to shield them from adversity. The key to a successful life is learning to be resilient and deal with adversity in all of its forms.
6
This is Coo-coo. There is no safe space anywhere in this planet. We are constantly surrounded by danger. The biggest dis service a so called institute of higher learning could provide for its students is to shield them from the realities of everyday life rather than introducing them to their own inner core of courage.
Th planet needs people with the courage to stand up and demand equality, liberty, justice for all. this takes courage and self forgetfulness.
Th planet needs people with the courage to stand up and demand equality, liberty, justice for all. this takes courage and self forgetfulness.
2
Colleges have become a joke. They shelter and thus extend the term of childish behaviors. They have lazy rivers and churiscarria and violent footballing but no principles or accountability for stupidity whether in fraternities or debate clubs or otherwise. That getting your ticket punched to move on to the next level of real life costs more than buying a house, well, like I said, it is an absurd joke.
3
Maybe, sometimes, it would be useful to remember why the concept and practice of "good manners" was once considered important for children to learn.
It would probably help if this was practiced by our country's leaders, but what do I know?
It would probably help if this was practiced by our country's leaders, but what do I know?
2
It seems like the driving force behind this trend is Title VII and Title IX, and their stricture that campuses don't create a "hostile environment" for women and other groups subject to harassment. 90% of the comments here deplore the trend. Would they have these Titles changed? How?
1
eliminate them. "hostile environment" is interpreted in way to lenient of a manner. I wore a tee-shirt commemorating the Armenian genocide on campus and was reprimanded because it made Turkish students insecure.
Title VII and Title IX do not specifically apply to any one group but makes discrimination specifically because of race, sex, national origin, religion....illegal. It's not about changing these laws but applying them equally or not making policy that somehow uses these laws to justify the elevation in status or 'rights' of one group over another. That you believed that Title IX was enacted to protect only women is the crux of most people's objection.
A lot of my thoughts have been covered by others' comments already, but I'd like to point out perhaps an additional conflation that may contribute to these types of situations, particularly regarding the last exchange between the journalist and the student: a misunderstanding or misperception of the differences between being "threatened" and being "offended."
18
This article seems to start with a fundamental understanding about "safe space." In therapy, the creation of safe space allows a person to confront painful realities and clanging dissonance, not escape from them. But with support rather than vicious attack, which is what social media teaches our kids these days. There are few "safe" and "quiet" spaces for them to go. Helicopter parenting does not feel safe, by the way, as it places constant pressure on the child to be who the parent wants. We are just barely - barely! - recognizing that sexual assault is a problem on campus, so the idea of supporting those who might have been victimized and invalidated seems a compassionate path. I don't see this as an avoidance of conflict, but a way to support working through more effectively. Will there be excess? Of course. But the excess of denial is far the heavier weight. We have forgotten how to be a kind society, and confuse compassion with infantalization.
1
This subject is galling and you have addressed it very well in my opinion. The very idea of this absurd fragility! College is a transitional time when students should be exposed to all sorts of ideas and language and experience and get used to the fact that all of life is not meant to be a cocoon "safe" place for the infantilized (who no doubt are spawned by helicopter parents). I had some terrible experiences in college but it was what I used to learn and grow up and become the kind of person I wanted to be, making choices based on good and evil, not from drawing, watching puppies romp and playing with play doh. Oh my, the sheer absurdity of this. Of course I believe there should be resources for anyone that feels unsafe but to cast this huge net and play into immaturity is just perpetuating weakness. Everyone has PTSD (Post from leaving the womb and Pre from facing the reality that life has and end point) so why not fill the space with the full richness of life and learn personal skills to be strong and have fun, not lie on kinder cots the entire span of it. Oh my, I am laughing and incredibly thankful that I am not in college these days with this lot of babies.
3
When 20-25% of female American college students have been sexually assaulted, sometimes in a way that resembles a war crime, it is not surprising that a lot of them are walking around with PTSD. Rather than ridicule these students for occasionally needing a safe space to recover from images that remind them of trauma, we should applaud their courage to stay in college and finish. It's really hard to go to class or even be on the same campus with somebody of whom you are terrified. When you see that person, you begin to tremble all over. When you see pictures of rape or sexual violence, you start to shake all over. When you have to read, say, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, sometimes you can't finish the book or write the paper. Stop sexual violence, and protect the rights of young women to study and learn, rather than ridiculing trauma survivors.
1
where does the ludricous 25% come from? Some women's studies program (i.e., a sexist program)?
3
If indeed our college campuses see more sexual assaults than war torn Uganda, you would surely be right. On the other hand, if that statistic has been thoroughly debunked (which it has) even by the surveys authors (which it has) perhaps we should stop using it to demagogue this issue (whuch we should). Sexual assaults on campuses have become the great scare of our age. It exists, its a terrible problem, but it is no worse at college than anywhere else in society.
3
“it's a dangerous business, frodo, going out your door."
10
Agreed. And yet, Frodo went...
1
Universities should train people to be strong and tough, intellectually and physically. They should inculcate anti-fragility. Instead, they weaken people. Whatever happened to "sticks and stones may hurt my bones but names will never harm me?"
5
There are two basic reasons to go to college: to prepare for the working world and to prepare for the vagaries of life. The ridiculous idea of "safe spaces" serves neither reason, and is actually a hindrance to both. If you are working and you do a terrible job on an assignment do you expect your boss to take you into a safe space and gently tell you that you might want to think about how you could improve your performance? If you lend a friend a substantial amount of money and he/she refuses to pay it back do you expect him/her to try to break the news gently so you don't become agitated? If you answered "yes" to either of the above questions you should live your entire life in a "safe" room.
3
When I read the part about a safe room with playdo and bubbles and videos of puppies I had to go back and make sure this wasn't a kindergarten. To my horror, it wasn't.
And these are the future leaders?
And these are the future leaders?
3
What's the difference between a "safe place" and a "club of like-minded people"?
9
As a current college freshman I have to agree that many college students today are far too sensitive. Unpopular options should be heard, just because you are offended by something does not mean someone else does not have the right to say it. If we continue to strive to make every single place a "safe space" we will create a generation of student who are unable to deal with the real world where not everything is handed to them in bubble wrap.
12
Absolutely. There is some irony in that many of the same left-wing crusaders who would endorse the attitudes of Hall and Byron undoubtedly also rushed, after the Paris massacre, to proclaim 'I am Charlie Hebdo'.
I have to think that college administrators are in a tough spot here: they are selling a very expensive service - an Ivy education for $250,000 - and they need to make their customers happy. If they challenge their views or tell them to grow up (in a very grown up way) or withhold the Play-Doh and cookies, the customer the high-paying customer is not happy.
6
that is the problem with treating students as "customers". When will the business minded recognize this stupidity?
1
It is a difficult thing within the marketplace of ideas to put forth a position that offends no one. College students are working through what this means and how, or if, to engage.
I would caution, however, searching too deeply for a trend in this and what it may mean for the future. If you find yourself saying the equivalent of "Kids these days.", then you are probably suffering from a generational bias. Older people have been lamenting the poor choices of the young forever. Eventually the older people fade away and somehow, against all the odds, the youth keep things running pretty much the same.
If you think these kids have it wrong, wait 'till you meet THEIR children. :)
I would caution, however, searching too deeply for a trend in this and what it may mean for the future. If you find yourself saying the equivalent of "Kids these days.", then you are probably suffering from a generational bias. Older people have been lamenting the poor choices of the young forever. Eventually the older people fade away and somehow, against all the odds, the youth keep things running pretty much the same.
If you think these kids have it wrong, wait 'till you meet THEIR children. :)
1
No, something really did change. I'm 60 next month, part of the 'first wave' feminism. We came from generations that were patronized and condescended to by men who saw us as weak, childlike, incapable of handling responsibility, needing to be taken care of, sheltered, like infants, toys, or pets. 'Don't worry your pretty little head'. We had, however, noticed that when we needed to be strong - Rosie the Riveter building WW II ordnance, the WACs, the battlefield ambulance drivers of WW I, the escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad, etc. - we were. Like Nora in Ibsen's doll's house (more than a hundred years ago!), we wanted out. We cherished strength and resilience. What we wanted NOT to be was victims. Somewhere along the way, victimhood became an attribute, one to be sought and cherished, because it could be used as a weapon.
2
I recall when girls at Columbia were far more interested in sharing dorm space with the guys when co-ed dorms were a new, cutting edge phenomenon.
If girls want to be protected from beastly, hairy, muscle bound men, they ought to register at all girls schools , if they still exist. If they don't, it should be remembered that it was the girls and their moms's who pushed for the inclusion of girls on all male campuses and men in all girl schools.
I thought co-education was supposed to be a cure for this Victorian mindset. It seems I thought too soon.
If girls want to be protected from beastly, hairy, muscle bound men, they ought to register at all girls schools , if they still exist. If they don't, it should be remembered that it was the girls and their moms's who pushed for the inclusion of girls on all male campuses and men in all girl schools.
I thought co-education was supposed to be a cure for this Victorian mindset. It seems I thought too soon.
7
I'm Columbia College '83. One of my favorite memories from my time there is showering in our co-ed shower room with a wonderful woman who lived on my dorm floor, a senior tenderly helping a freshman to grow up, and thinking "wow, I ain't in Kansas anymore." Thank you for reminding me of those wonderful days.
1
What ever happen to "I am woman hear me roar" feminism?
It seems to have become "I am woman hear me whine whenever you present, not an action but simply an IDEA for me to be frightened by".
Of course, we really know it is not that the ideas are frightening. The ideas do not conform to the acceptable standard: Blame white males.
It seems to have become "I am woman hear me whine whenever you present, not an action but simply an IDEA for me to be frightened by".
Of course, we really know it is not that the ideas are frightening. The ideas do not conform to the acceptable standard: Blame white males.
3
My gym has a message board for complaints, many stating not just "the room was too cold" but "I'm offended that the room was too cold," not just "they were out of towels" but "I feel disrespected that they were out of towels."
Does stating that you feel victimized increase the chances that you'll get what you want? Is this just a tool for social survival, like demanding to speak to a supervisor, asking for a receipt, and not riding in the last subway car?
Signed: a liberal female veteran of '70s-era college debates
Does stating that you feel victimized increase the chances that you'll get what you want? Is this just a tool for social survival, like demanding to speak to a supervisor, asking for a receipt, and not riding in the last subway car?
Signed: a liberal female veteran of '70s-era college debates
13
Being treated as a child will not help anyone to face and deal with traumatic situations, derogatory words, nor appalling viewpoints with maturity.
6
University is not a place to expand your intellectual horizons and challenge your values.
It is a place to go to escape from the real world and extend your childhood by four (or five) years. A place where you can hang out and hook up without consequences. A place where you get an A if you bother to show up for class most of the time and a B if you don't. A place where you can self-righteously demand all the protections of childhood and all the privileges of adulthood, and if the mean professor doesn't comply you can call in mommy and daddy to sort it out for you.
At least, this is what a large portion of US college students seem to assume.
The behavior described in this article is, therefore, not contrary to the purpose of attending university as the author believes. It is perfectly consistent with the purpose of university.
It is a place to go to escape from the real world and extend your childhood by four (or five) years. A place where you can hang out and hook up without consequences. A place where you get an A if you bother to show up for class most of the time and a B if you don't. A place where you can self-righteously demand all the protections of childhood and all the privileges of adulthood, and if the mean professor doesn't comply you can call in mommy and daddy to sort it out for you.
At least, this is what a large portion of US college students seem to assume.
The behavior described in this article is, therefore, not contrary to the purpose of attending university as the author believes. It is perfectly consistent with the purpose of university.
4
For many years I worked at a mental health clinic with, for the most part, well trained clinicians. There was however one clinician who was the exception to the norm. She felt it was her job to protect her clients who had experienced physical or sexual trauma. She fostered neediness and dependence and believed it was her job to rid the world of anything that might possibly trigger a client. She even objected to proven treatment modalities that fostered skills such as distress tolerance and self soothing.
I could go on but I think the point I'm making is fairly obvious.
I could go on but I think the point I'm making is fairly obvious.
7
A college education, just about the worst investment you can make. Your child will graduate as a narcissistic, self absorbed leftist looking for a "safe room" every time something bad happens. Much better option to spend that money on world travel or a trade school.
3
In addition to "helicopter parenting" playing a role in speech suppression on college campuses, I would also argue that the higher percentage of women on campus also plays a role. Get together with a group of college age guys and you'll see some pretty 'insensitive' banter. A group of women aren't as likely to do that. So as the percentage of women on campus goes up, the tolerance for 'inappropriate' speech goes down.
1
This is very distressing but I don't blame the students. They're kids. The problem is the skittish faculty and staff. It's their responsibility to teach the difference between "unsafe" and "offended". Even if that means putting up with some farcical investigation.
5
Once strongholds of free speech, college campuses have become infantilized during the past few decades, due to the emergence of an unchallengeable ethos of "political correctness". This happened because college leaders (presidents and deans) were afraid to stand up to institutional activists who worked to bring this change about, and the likely root of their fear was based on their high salaries which they perceived could be at risk.
4
Brava! If students don't learn about the world they will be entering, how can they survive in it? The only way to be "safe" - and no one is - is to learn as much as possible about other points of view and what informs them. Knowledge is the only protection there is in this truly mad world.
As we in the US are heavily propagandized, the last bastion of whatever truths can still be told is universities. Students need to put down their cell phones, find classical university courses, and learn. Good luck to find the right history, language, art, and science courses.
As we in the US are heavily propagandized, the last bastion of whatever truths can still be told is universities. Students need to put down their cell phones, find classical university courses, and learn. Good luck to find the right history, language, art, and science courses.
2
I think odious trend has two components. The first is the infantilizing of children and young adults seen in the regimented, indoor childhoods so prevalent now. The essay about free-range parenting (otherwise known as normal parenting) earlier in the week describes this well.
The other is our consumer culture. When the market is the ultimate arbiter, when buying and selling becomes our dominant cultural theme, it's no wonder that demand is seen as completely rational to these kids. College professors are no longer educators but suppliers.
Combine these two and we have (sensitive and well-meaning, but ultimately dangerous) little tyrants who cannot cope with the world without bending it to their will.
The other is our consumer culture. When the market is the ultimate arbiter, when buying and selling becomes our dominant cultural theme, it's no wonder that demand is seen as completely rational to these kids. College professors are no longer educators but suppliers.
Combine these two and we have (sensitive and well-meaning, but ultimately dangerous) little tyrants who cannot cope with the world without bending it to their will.
4
Is this always about needing a safe place, or just a tactic that's sometimes used to censor or ban ideas?
5
I think that while the author rightly points out that the idea of "safe space" has some grounding in feminist and pro-gay movements, she misses that its primary origin is psychotherapy. In order for trauma patients to heal, it is vital that they be allowed to discuss and revisit the source of the trauma in a nonjudgmental, calming environment, with the guidance of a caring professional. This scenario can only be created on a one-on-one basis, in the controlled environment of a therapists office. I can't see how it would even be possible to make entire college campuses this "safe," setting aside the discussion of how such sterilization damages students' education. The movement to try to make all of college life "trigger-free" is completely misguided: just because it is useful and necessary in a therapeutic relationship doesn't mean that it can or should be applied to the outside world.
7
I must say that, as a professor, I cringe at the idea that students need to be protected in a classroom setting. But the blame cannot be placed solely on universities. The students have been raised in a particular way within the norms of a broader society. There is an over-emphasis on a type of individualism in which everyone is special and that specialness must be formally recognized and accommodated. The competition for students leads universities to offer a "product" that students and parents have come to see as required. Moreover, the growth of litigation means that universities are always at risk of being dragged into court. So, the risk-minimizing strategy is to cave in whenever a student's claim/wish/desire could result in a court date.
There are obviously students who have experienced trauma. But that should be handled with professional help and should not inhibit the free exchange of ideas in a classroom. Remember, for every one student that might be offended, there are multitudes who won't and their rights to a free classroom environment are being taken away.
There are obviously students who have experienced trauma. But that should be handled with professional help and should not inhibit the free exchange of ideas in a classroom. Remember, for every one student that might be offended, there are multitudes who won't and their rights to a free classroom environment are being taken away.
15
The problem with this "safe space" approach is it doesn't differentiate between truly dangerous situations and challenging situations that are not actually unsafe. The description of the "safe space" supplied with the paraphernalia of nursery school is very creepy. Anyone who is old enough to be a college student shouldn't find comfort in being treated like a toddler. I'm reminded of the article in Friday's NY Times advocating "free-range parenting" as an alternative to the prevalent overprotective parenting that keeps many children so insulated these days. No wonder so many college graduates end up moving back in with their parents. Yes, I know it's partly economic, but it's also the result of raising a generation of kids who haven't been allowed the opportunity to develop the independence and self-confidence necessary to deal with the real world, which is not always kind and focused on them.
7
I think this is about the silliest thing I have ever seen in print. How old are these people? If you can't hear anything that affects your sensibilities don't go to the meeting.
8
It was hard to choose which quote to use from this piece, so many terrific surgical sentences. The final few paragraphs form a perfect crescendo to this essay. But, as a parent of teens this is the one quote that struck me “Perhaps overprogrammed children engineered to the specifications of college admissions offices no longer experience the risks and challenges that breed maturity,”
It really is amazing that 0.1% that attend Smith College cannot tell the difference between talking about racism and being racist. These young people were sadly engineered to the purpose of admissions not to the purpose adulthood.
MY own thought is that we should remember that before Versailles was a museum it was where the elites lived in their cocoons.
It really is amazing that 0.1% that attend Smith College cannot tell the difference between talking about racism and being racist. These young people were sadly engineered to the purpose of admissions not to the purpose adulthood.
MY own thought is that we should remember that before Versailles was a museum it was where the elites lived in their cocoons.
7
Young women (far fewer men) use their cell phones as a quite literal umbilical cord to Mom (far fewer dads). Starts in high schoo!l! When Mom wants hourly check in. In colleges, we see young women who phone Mom not just daily, but after every class. Moms monitor from afar. Or not -- one spent two weeks in her daughter's freshman dorm room after orientation, sleeping on the floor, to help her adjust to NYC and college (until roommates complained).. And yes, when they hit work, they are il-prepared. Mom still gets calls at end of work day, or at lunch, or daughter "steps out" of her cubicle to whine to Mom and get solace. And the horror is that these parents think this is normal. God help the new husbands when these still-linked women being their mothers into the marriage six times a day.
10
Safe spaces aren't about hiding. The point of a safe space (as illustrated by the example provided during the rape culture debate) is to help students attend a debate or discuss an issue they might otherwise avoid due to past trauma. Is it really so hard to imagine that a rape survivor with PTSD would appreciate a quiet place to recover if the discussion triggers memories of her rape? Having the space gives her the freedom to attend the event without worrying about a panic attack in the middle of the audience. It strikes me as a lovely idea born of basic human decency.
81
I was raped while in college like many others here have confessed. A couple of years later at the Art Institute of Chicago, I took a drawing class, a life drawing class. One day the model had to me an alarming resemblance to the man who raped me, lying there in all his glory, the pose not particularly artful and more worthy of a centerfold displaying an idea of more male driven than female driven sensibility. I was upset. very upset. I told my teacher who coached me to use those feelings and put them into my work. And so I did. I have the drawings still. I drew him as a pile of disentegrating rocks that no matter how confident he was of his power, nature would eventually grind down to dust. One of the single most valuable classes I attended--ever.
15
Blue, tremendous, articulate, powerful, terrific. And I've done similar work myself, not around rape, but around being insulted on a college campus because of my ethnicity -- Polish American. I wrote about it. I published on it. I did not run and hide.
5
Having him arrested before he grabbed the next victim would have been a lot more useful.
2
Arrested for an "alarming resemblance"?
2
Nothing like letting fear run your life. Intellectual wimps.
10
This is a phenomenon prevalent on the left and the right. Both groups shield themselves from thought provoking ideas that may challenge their most deeply held beliefs.
Reading and hearing things that are upsetting and traumatic and that make you angry are a necessary part of life and learning.
People can't be forced to listen or read something that is "triggering" to them but they do not have the right to squelch the topic.
I could also go the rest of my life without hearing the word "triggering" again. To me it has come to mean I don't like what you are saying and rather than use my own words to argue with you or try to prove where you are wrong I will instead claim you hurt my feelings and made me feel unsafe.
Reading and hearing things that are upsetting and traumatic and that make you angry are a necessary part of life and learning.
People can't be forced to listen or read something that is "triggering" to them but they do not have the right to squelch the topic.
I could also go the rest of my life without hearing the word "triggering" again. To me it has come to mean I don't like what you are saying and rather than use my own words to argue with you or try to prove where you are wrong I will instead claim you hurt my feelings and made me feel unsafe.
6
"'I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs,' Ms. Hall said." Is this not the point of a Liberal Arts education? Scrutinizing one's own opinions is a requisite part of being an intelligent, intellectually honest person.
20
“Bringing in a speaker like that could serve to invalidate people’s experiences,”
My wife and I got a good laugh over this pretentious young lady. 'Invalidate?'
My wife and I got a good laugh over this pretentious young lady. 'Invalidate?'
19
Yes, many students get insulted if a professor challenges their views, however tactfully. And even more so if they aren't graded A in every class. It's one thing to defend one's ideas and another to close your mind entirely. I tell my students: The more you are defensive, the less you learn.
5
I'm starting a serious garden, seeds indoors, the whole thing. I can't help but consider the practice "hardening off". It means that seedlings jumpstarted under controlled conditions need a gradual exposure to their new environment outdoors or they will die of shock. In this article, what I see both the nurturing and visiting speakers is hysteria of extremes and NO hardening off. Who thinks Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck are suitable debate choices. No one. It seems a maybe less extreme but no less poor choices were made for the debate. A good debate needs nuanced even if confrontational arguments. From what was in this article, I doubt either debate choice could deliver. Then there's the bit about the play-doh. I'm sorry, it makes me cringe. It makes a mockery of the effects of real trauma.
I will go one step further, perhaps this is prima facie evidence that the sex experienced by high schoolers before they get to college, encouraged and supported by social media, "popularity" culture that encourages drinking, drugs, sex and the stupidity of anyone else not in the group including adults are unneeded. We're talking about a population that steps out into the street without looking up from their phones.
I think its time to harden these students off to the reality of life, not cruel swinging between extremes but how to actually navigate life. This ain"t it.
I will go one step further, perhaps this is prima facie evidence that the sex experienced by high schoolers before they get to college, encouraged and supported by social media, "popularity" culture that encourages drinking, drugs, sex and the stupidity of anyone else not in the group including adults are unneeded. We're talking about a population that steps out into the street without looking up from their phones.
I think its time to harden these students off to the reality of life, not cruel swinging between extremes but how to actually navigate life. This ain"t it.
9
This is what happens when the K-12 educational experience has been turned into an exercised in passing state tests. The students now in college have been taught to conform, not question. The lack of free speech on campuses is a disgrace. I am wondering if one university somewhere will break free from this ridiculous trend and take the opposite course. We need one brave university president to publicly announce he/she will invite in unpopular and disturbing speakers on purpose, and then explain to the students that the US was founded on unpopular, revolutionary, disturbing, heretical, frightening ideas. Treason against a king was politically incorrect in the extreme.
10
Spare me! I went to a college in DC, in the late 80s, early 90s. During the fall of my freshman year, there was a large celebration on our quad, celebrating the creation (or idea of) a Palestinian state, and in some cases, the destruction of the state of Israel. Talk about an idea blowing my mind. Was I uncomfortable? Yes, but isn't that the point of getting out of your 'high school bubble?" As long as students are not harmed physically and the college environment is not hostile to a wide variety of points of view, the idea of free speech, academic inquiry, etc. are all hugely important. Yes, some lines need to be drawn, but the notion of safe space having to exist on a regular basis is infantilizing. If someone doesn't like a speaker, don't go or go and protest non-violently...
4
Adam Shapiro is spot on, especially when reinforces with Judith Shapiro's apt term of self-infantilization, much of it due to "helicoptering" parents. It's bad enough that America's permanent state of late adolescence is permanently reinforced by just about every television commercial. This state of affairs also gives fodder to the anti-intellectual, anti-education right wing of this country.
Being dismissive or insensitive about an issue such as rape is one thing. Running away from a debate over it or disinviting a band because of its racial make up is another. College is supposed to be the time where a kid really beings to grow up. Having a hiding place with cookies and Play Doh is not part of that process.
Being dismissive or insensitive about an issue such as rape is one thing. Running away from a debate over it or disinviting a band because of its racial make up is another. College is supposed to be the time where a kid really beings to grow up. Having a hiding place with cookies and Play Doh is not part of that process.
10
Let me guess the age of most of the responders here. It's not college age. It's not particularly young. As am I, not college age, not particularly young.
One factor NOT mentioned in these responses is the power of internet tools and internet culture to do harm to individuals and even entire societies. We celebrated when internet connectivity enabled Arab Spring. When we see those same tools shred our own social cohesiveness we're appalled.
How is this phenomenon related to what is happening as described herein on campuses? We as a society (heck, we as a world community) have not figured out how to handle quickly moving information and criticism that can spiral out of proportion in an instant -- and the destructive power of it when it's laser focused on individuals or groups of like-minded people who are deemed "other."
Creating so-called safe places in rather public places is an experiment. Where better to conduct a social experiment than on colleges campuses? It's ALL part of the debate. Will it succeed in making the world a better place? Will it backfire?
We don't know. That social "norms" are under siege cannot be in doubt. It's pretty chaotic out there.
There is a great deal of name calling in these responses, and not a whole lot of recognition that our world is fundamentally changed. Let's consider how we build better societies based not on old norms - - they're forever dead and gone - - but in the context of an unexpectedly brutal new reality.
One factor NOT mentioned in these responses is the power of internet tools and internet culture to do harm to individuals and even entire societies. We celebrated when internet connectivity enabled Arab Spring. When we see those same tools shred our own social cohesiveness we're appalled.
How is this phenomenon related to what is happening as described herein on campuses? We as a society (heck, we as a world community) have not figured out how to handle quickly moving information and criticism that can spiral out of proportion in an instant -- and the destructive power of it when it's laser focused on individuals or groups of like-minded people who are deemed "other."
Creating so-called safe places in rather public places is an experiment. Where better to conduct a social experiment than on colleges campuses? It's ALL part of the debate. Will it succeed in making the world a better place? Will it backfire?
We don't know. That social "norms" are under siege cannot be in doubt. It's pretty chaotic out there.
There is a great deal of name calling in these responses, and not a whole lot of recognition that our world is fundamentally changed. Let's consider how we build better societies based not on old norms - - they're forever dead and gone - - but in the context of an unexpectedly brutal new reality.
1
This is but one reflection of our current era of intolerance, when political correctness has run amok, with hypersensitive knee-jerk outrage against even a single comment that can be perceived as classist, racist or sexist. It's the new McCarthyism, equally anti-intellectual but this time carried out by the left.
8
Yeah, because right-wingers never tried to censor Mark Twain, go after Margarat Sanger, drive the commies out of universities, take Bruce Franklin's job, shut down Critical Legal Studies at Harvard, run intellectual mob orgs like Accuracy in Academia, haul climatologists before a grand jury, require loyalty oaths as a condition of faculty employment, or anything else that right-wingers have in fact done.
The objection isn't to left-wingers. It's to censorship, whether open or subtle.
The objection isn't to left-wingers. It's to censorship, whether open or subtle.
6
This is a generation raised by helicopter parents who attempted to "protect" them from every risk, every unfamiliar idea. Their children never did anything wrong, every failure was someone else's fault. If we turn every college experience into a "safe space", the students will be in for an extremely rude shock when they get out into the real world and find out that there are lots of people who are not so nice, who will disagree with them, and no one is there to shield them from unfamiliar or unpleasant ideas.
8
We're headed for a world where everyone is tiptoeing on eggshells. In fact, in some environments we are already there.
I try and avoid places and people around whom I (and they) can't be real and where the actual messiness of life can't be expressed to some reasonable degree. We can be civil, but express strongly divergent views.
Seems likely the world will polarize into two camps, those trying to control your thoughts and speech and everything must conform to their sanitized view, and those that let you be human, which includes expressing what you want, including some of your frailties and shortcomings.
At least we can choose - some of the time - the crowd we hang with.
I try and avoid places and people around whom I (and they) can't be real and where the actual messiness of life can't be expressed to some reasonable degree. We can be civil, but express strongly divergent views.
Seems likely the world will polarize into two camps, those trying to control your thoughts and speech and everything must conform to their sanitized view, and those that let you be human, which includes expressing what you want, including some of your frailties and shortcomings.
At least we can choose - some of the time - the crowd we hang with.
8
Students shielded from diversity of opinion will enter their post-college world in a state of hyper-vulnerability, stripped of their safe rooms and feel-good curricula. Their emotional crash will be far more severe than if they'd taken smaller doses of opinion all along, as most of humanity has done. Societies are changing to deal with the shocks of modern life, but they could never keep the pace the schools are setting. A large and growing disparity exists. This is the real story, I think.
8
As a young person in a college environment right now, I can assure you that it hS gotten out of hand. Add to it the social pressure to pretend you agree that these are good ideas (otherwise you are victim blaming or being insensitive) and you end up with a large population of people who know these ideas are wrong but are afraid to even criticize the idea for fear of being ostricized.
18
What is surprising is that rather than be shocked that so many sexual assault survivors have been traumatized, most of the comments take aim at the fact that young women who have been assaulted need a place to recover from a PTSD episode. I wonder if these are the same people who mock the soldiers who return home from battle having difficulty coping. Is it really so difficult to understand that it is terrifying for a young person to experience life-threatening physical violence? That so many people need a "safer space" should be cause for alarm about the state our of society, not the gunshot beginning another race to the bottom to see who can mock the rape victim more smugly. "Infantile," indeed.
98
I think the comments are really about suffocating free speech on campus to protect these victims. I do not see a single comment demeaning or blaming the actual victims of assault.
10
No, we don't. We take aim at the goofy notion that everything needs to be a safe space for trauma recovery, down to and including classrooms and books.
It's not just that it's stupid to try and make everything confession, or psychiatry, or a conversion narrative.
It's that what you guys appear to want is a "safe space," in which to run everything.
You act, and speak, as people who want power, not security.
It's not just that it's stupid to try and make everything confession, or psychiatry, or a conversion narrative.
It's that what you guys appear to want is a "safe space," in which to run everything.
You act, and speak, as people who want power, not security.
4
Ms Shulevitz is describing nothing more than a resurgence under different colors of the so-called "politically correct" campus movements of the 1980s and 1990s. I was a graduate student in those years and well remember the authoritarian demands for anti-intellectual "re-education" of faculty, hate-speech codes, equity-office sensitivity training, and other such nonsense that sloshed over campuses in a tsunami of bilge.
I was (and am) a very left wing liberal but in those days I found myself in agreement with conservative critics.
But then came the Bush years, and matters became clearer. The focus of the right on stupidities on campus -- such as the playroom for undergraduates described here -- served as excellent camouflage for the enactment of the hard-right agenda that affects far more people than the privileged little souls at Smith or Brown. As conservatives pointed to hate-speech incident X, or re-education demand Y they initiated tax cuts and deregulation that destroyed the American economy and pushed our society into the realm of feudalism; they started two wars that killed 100,000's and cost trillions; they illegally surveilled and tortured; and they treated the first black president as if he was a foreign enemy.
So of course we should push back against the sort of thing documented in this piece - it as infantile as it is risible. But let's not forget who the real enemy is and what they are capable of. (Hint: it's not a 20-year undergraduate clutching a blankey.)
I was (and am) a very left wing liberal but in those days I found myself in agreement with conservative critics.
But then came the Bush years, and matters became clearer. The focus of the right on stupidities on campus -- such as the playroom for undergraduates described here -- served as excellent camouflage for the enactment of the hard-right agenda that affects far more people than the privileged little souls at Smith or Brown. As conservatives pointed to hate-speech incident X, or re-education demand Y they initiated tax cuts and deregulation that destroyed the American economy and pushed our society into the realm of feudalism; they started two wars that killed 100,000's and cost trillions; they illegally surveilled and tortured; and they treated the first black president as if he was a foreign enemy.
So of course we should push back against the sort of thing documented in this piece - it as infantile as it is risible. But let's not forget who the real enemy is and what they are capable of. (Hint: it's not a 20-year undergraduate clutching a blankey.)
142
"Protecting" our young is one of the worst things we can do for them. It leaves them totally unprepared to protect themselves or even to recognize danger. I am minded of all those people who believe in "protecting" their children's virtue by preventing them from being exposed to wickedness. Do we not understand that the virtue lies in the choosing rather than in the absence of opportunity?
6
How is any of this sheltering and safety going to address the real problems of sexual assault, rape, sexism, homophobia, racism, and vast inequality between rich and poor in this country?
I have found the best way to recover from a traumatic experience is to talk about it openly and candidly, and to help prevent it from happening to others, not to focus on sheltering myself from my own feelings.
I have found the best way to recover from a traumatic experience is to talk about it openly and candidly, and to help prevent it from happening to others, not to focus on sheltering myself from my own feelings.
5
This column is the most depressing thing I read today. Have we so screwed up our children that they have to go around with their fingers in their ears to "not hear" anything they might object to? How will they ever live in the real world? Note to self-important, weak kneed college students: the world does not care about your "feelings" so suck it up and learn to make honest argument. What happened to the Americans who said "I disagree but I will defend your right to say that to the death"? Have we sunk this low?
8
"Any idea which is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea." -- Oscar Wilde.
11
There is no such thing as "hate speech". There is only speech. If you find it hateful, reply with your own speech.
4
Poor babies! But who will protect them from the nasty ideas, thoughts and images they may encounter when watching TV on an every-day basis?
5
Good points to be made on both sides of this issue, if only there were some setting where one could be educated about issues that evoke such strong conflicting perspectives. Where might that happen? I feel like I can almost put my finger on it, like some place where young people could go to learn about different ideas, some they might agree with, others they might reject. If only such a place existed! As George Carlin said regarding the preacher who complained about radio content: "there are two knobs on the radio Reverend, one to change the station, the other to turn it off!" If you don't like the ideas that someone is expressing, you always have the option of not listening to them.
3
An educated mind must be open to all viewpoints, be able to ask questions, and safely defend one's version of the truth. (Isn't this forum a good example of defending a version of the truth?) While I perfectly understand the young women's need to protect themselves from the traumas of sexual assault and hostile environments, I also believe in Mr. Shapiro's statement that differentiates "therapeutic space" and "intellectual space." I would go one step further though. The intellectual space may even become a source of healing for women who are traumatized.
1
If it were really just about protecting people's feelings, NOTHING would ever get done. It's about a hierarchy where some people's feelings are more important than others.
4
The movement was not about protecting people's feelings. It was bringing awareness to how what we say affects others. The derogatory terms we used to use for Italians, Polish people, Spanish, Irish, Asians, etc., all are pretty well gone now, and the world is better for it.
4
Everyone has a right to free speech. Yes, even those who you disagree with. A "Safe space" is utterly ridiculous.
4
The corruption of the word, safe, reminds me of the essay published some time ago in the NY Times by Doris Lessing which was about how ideology, corrupts language. In it she gave an example of agitprop. The campaigns at these colleges remind us that Doris Lessing's fears have, sadly, been realized.
2
In Lake Wobegon every child is exceptional. In our schools most children get A's and everyone in a sports activity gets a trophy. So is it surprising that any ideas counter to one's own thinking should be so traumatic and disturbing? Safe rooms and the situations described in this article are just a consequence of the coddling of children from an early age. And it's just another example of intolerance others and the inability to engage in a meaningful dialogue about anything. When this permeates some of our nation's and the worlds top universities it is especially disturbing and discouraging.
16
Let's put this in perspective. During the debate mentioned in the piece the safe space was used by a couple of dozen people while the lecture hall was packed. Seems like most students were fine with debate and scary ideas. If the media chooses to give a disproportionately loud voice to a minority view that is their right. However, it is partly the attention given to this topic by the media that sustains it. It does not necessarily reflect a majority view among our college students.
2
The attitude influences how colleges and students deal with sexual behavior, and men are automatically demonized and stripped of their rights by these attitudes. Take a look at Harvard's policy on sexual misconduct and the influence it has. Drunk "victims" are blameless and drunk respondents (AKA the accused) are guilty.
This article and the associated comments seem to be a diatribe by cranky old people who cannot deal with change. Really, you actually think that it is bad that young people are concerned with others feelings and want them to feel safe? Language and context change across generations. What once may have seemed purely academic can later seem offensive. Viewpoints change. That is just the way of the world. These students have grown up in an environment of information and image overload which can only be viewed as an assult on emotions and senses. Give them a break and let them work it out.
1
'...you actually think that it is bad that young people are concerned with others feelings and want them to feel safe?...'
That they want to censor the speech of others is a concern, absolutely.
That they want their binkies when they hear 'hurtful' words is simply laughable.
That they want to censor the speech of others is a concern, absolutely.
That they want their binkies when they hear 'hurtful' words is simply laughable.
6
The most troubling aspect of Ms. Shulevitz's article is the fact that it needed to be written. As a seven decades-plus resident of this planet, I'm not that surprised by the vagaries of the human existence, but never in my wildest imaginings did I consider that our institutions of higher learning would be turned into exaggerated versions of a kindergarten, designed not only to protect its inhabitants from physical harm but from any possibility of hurt feelings as well.
But the transformation of our colleges and universities into safe zones free from anything that might evoke bad vibes about anything did not take place in a vacuum, simply in response to over-hyped concerns about political correctness. Surely, this is a natural progression in the life of institutions that long ago abandoned any semblance of a demanding curriculum in favor of permitting students apparently unlimited time to spend in drunken stupor. Enlivened, of course, by glorious sports games played in the new or improved stadium, built expressly to attract students committed to drinking and sports rather than to obtaining an education. This whole debased culture is long overdue for a taxpayer revolt, beginning with the recognition that the average college president apparently has become about as worthless as a cow's fifth teat.
But the transformation of our colleges and universities into safe zones free from anything that might evoke bad vibes about anything did not take place in a vacuum, simply in response to over-hyped concerns about political correctness. Surely, this is a natural progression in the life of institutions that long ago abandoned any semblance of a demanding curriculum in favor of permitting students apparently unlimited time to spend in drunken stupor. Enlivened, of course, by glorious sports games played in the new or improved stadium, built expressly to attract students committed to drinking and sports rather than to obtaining an education. This whole debased culture is long overdue for a taxpayer revolt, beginning with the recognition that the average college president apparently has become about as worthless as a cow's fifth teat.
11
I am an American-born Jew living in France. I can't publish opinions in forums like this for a very real fear of a home invasion. Classifying a speech by a Charlie Hebdo survivor as offensive to Muslims is an indefensible, vile expression of hate speech on its face. I don't know what the Muslim student found unsafe but I know what I do: worrying that I'll be killed shopping for kosher food, or my home will be broken into and my wife raped because I'm Jewish, or that my synagogue will be firebombed or defaced. All these things really have happened to us Jews here in France, and more, all in the last year.
University's should be teaching students to think. Some professor, somewhere, may one day point out that Muslims, who outnumber Jews by 100 to 1, aren't exactly a minority. Or that a woman journalist who saw her coworkers mowed down by two men in the name of Islam because of their thoughts and drawings might be a lot more traumatized than a student who didn't want to confront the behavior by some members of her religion.
This trend towards is an affront on academic freedom and on intelligence itself.
University's should be teaching students to think. Some professor, somewhere, may one day point out that Muslims, who outnumber Jews by 100 to 1, aren't exactly a minority. Or that a woman journalist who saw her coworkers mowed down by two men in the name of Islam because of their thoughts and drawings might be a lot more traumatized than a student who didn't want to confront the behavior by some members of her religion.
This trend towards is an affront on academic freedom and on intelligence itself.
21
What two words in America give even the weakest person a taste of power, especially on a college campus? I'm offended. It doesn't matter why they're offended. It doesn't matter if it makes any sense. It doesn't matter if in the bigger picture it impedes forward progress. In that one moment comes short-term catharsis because the college has to react to it, and suddenly a person ignored (happens to everybody) is a person being reacted to.
"I'm offended." Two words, two stupid words and it will be used perpetually as long as reactions like this are the norm.
And the worst part is, the most "offended" people are generally the ones who care the least about it. Because it isn't about solving the issue. It's about power for themselves.
"I'm offended." Two words, two stupid words and it will be used perpetually as long as reactions like this are the norm.
And the worst part is, the most "offended" people are generally the ones who care the least about it. Because it isn't about solving the issue. It's about power for themselves.
12
Sexual assault peer educator?
Safe spaces?
Subtle displays of racial or sexual bias?
Little islands of self-restraint?
Self-infantilization?
Guaranteed psychological security?
Burrowed so deep inside their cocoons?
Overcome by their own fragility?
“Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to Gabby Johnson (Judith Shulevitz?)
for clearly stating what needed to be said. I’m particularly glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.”
From the Mel Brooks' movie, Blazing Saddles.
Safe spaces?
Subtle displays of racial or sexual bias?
Little islands of self-restraint?
Self-infantilization?
Guaranteed psychological security?
Burrowed so deep inside their cocoons?
Overcome by their own fragility?
“Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to Gabby Johnson (Judith Shulevitz?)
for clearly stating what needed to be said. I’m particularly glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.”
From the Mel Brooks' movie, Blazing Saddles.
2
The trend identified here started over 40 years ago with one or two of the first victim studies departments. And for 40 years it was tolerated, embraced, and even forced on us (particularly by liberals). But now that it is spreading to dozens of self-identified victim groups, society is realizing the craziness of it all. (In fact, we have conservatives to thank for pointing out the craziness.)
6
I graduated New York University Journalism in 1977. I can't imagine any safe place that would protect me from scary ideas or the work which I had to do for my degree. We are not attending Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood in university! I expected, amount demanded, to be challenged in every single way by all my experiences there to prepare me emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually for living life and my career. I didn't expect or need anyone to remove his sneakers singing "Its such a great feeling" and put their shoes on to face reality.
Each and every day, even while reading the newspapers, there are such horrors happening in our world and its loaded with "triggers" and there are no safe spaces on these pages or in our spinning-out-of-control world either.
There have been articles in this paper before on trigger warnings for reading material before and I for one am horrified by such infantilism and afraid for future generations who need them to buffer themselves. I could not perform my work on Holocaust crimes and the horrors within the written word or imagery if, for instance, I was prevented from watching historical films in high school. I was 15 years old and completely innocent. What I viewed marked me for life and that's why I do this chosen vital work. I understood what evil after viewing was and all my efforts today are making sure that the victims are never forgotten.
I never knew "Its such a great feeling!" world. It's messy and very scary!
Each and every day, even while reading the newspapers, there are such horrors happening in our world and its loaded with "triggers" and there are no safe spaces on these pages or in our spinning-out-of-control world either.
There have been articles in this paper before on trigger warnings for reading material before and I for one am horrified by such infantilism and afraid for future generations who need them to buffer themselves. I could not perform my work on Holocaust crimes and the horrors within the written word or imagery if, for instance, I was prevented from watching historical films in high school. I was 15 years old and completely innocent. What I viewed marked me for life and that's why I do this chosen vital work. I understood what evil after viewing was and all my efforts today are making sure that the victims are never forgotten.
I never knew "Its such a great feeling!" world. It's messy and very scary!
11
Your ire at Fred Rogers seems misplaced.
1
No, Web, well-intentioned as Fred Rogers was, he was the one who really raised a generation on the notion that 'you're special, just because you're you'. There is a place for Mister Rogers, the Teletubbies and similar gentle fare. But 'when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things'. (Going from memory there; may be a little off.) Mister Rogers' neighbourhood is a place you eventually move out of. Sooner or later you move on from Goodnight Moon to Old Yeller and Charlotte's Web, and enter a world with death and evil in it.
Read the original Grimm's and Andersen fairy tales. They're much darker than the Disney version. Because children of those generations couldn't hide from the world -they learned early to cope with it. (The 'missing mother' of fairy tales reflected a reality in which your mother might well have died along with the little sibling she strove to bring into the world.)
Read the original Grimm's and Andersen fairy tales. They're much darker than the Disney version. Because children of those generations couldn't hide from the world -they learned early to cope with it. (The 'missing mother' of fairy tales reflected a reality in which your mother might well have died along with the little sibling she strove to bring into the world.)
2
Is this a joke? did college students, at an age where people are traditionally adults, set up a safe room with toys appropriate for two year olds? (coloring books? play dough?, really.) MY impression of that is that the people involved have pretty deep psychiatric problems, beyond what a university should be obligated to correct or even get involved with. Let them do play dough on their own time and dime.
and yeah,there is a lot of coddling by public institutions. Back in the 60's when I was in secondary school, once in a while in our large city school a child would die. I remember an auto accident and another young man with leukemia. We were told, yeah, that is a part of life and here is an address should you wish to send a condolence note. It was sad but not totally unreal. When my kids went to a large suburban school, and there was an accident involving a student, they would truck in psychologists, who knows why. ( In contrast, when my older relatives or a friend's parent passed away, they went to the memorials and managed that pretty well.)
and yeah,there is a lot of coddling by public institutions. Back in the 60's when I was in secondary school, once in a while in our large city school a child would die. I remember an auto accident and another young man with leukemia. We were told, yeah, that is a part of life and here is an address should you wish to send a condolence note. It was sad but not totally unreal. When my kids went to a large suburban school, and there was an accident involving a student, they would truck in psychologists, who knows why. ( In contrast, when my older relatives or a friend's parent passed away, they went to the memorials and managed that pretty well.)
26
Over-protected young adults also seem to believe that they ought not to encounter any opinion contrary to their own. Along with the degradation of the meaning of the word trauma to now stand for discomfort or slight, the cocoon culture is helping to produce legions of narcissistic censors. Whatever happened to "I detest what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it"? Ascribe it to Mrs. Hall or Mr. Voltaire as you choose.
28
Well now... power through auto-victimization and control by shibboleth are nothing new. Nietzsche pinpointed the underlying mentality two centuries ago.
Back in the sixties and seventies the fever broke out in a plethora of self-identifying groups with cognized issues, all aided and abetted and inflamed by that scourge of mankind (oops), the Modern Sociologist ... in search of his/her niche-issue/sinecure via bad grammar and fuzzy wording.
The United States is peculiarly susceptible to this inflammation of the mind because it is a cultural wasteland. No.. I do not mean culture-as -commodity (we have lots of that, some of it quite good) but as cohesion. This is a complex topic which cannot be discussed under a character limit. Suffice to ask: What is the necessary common denominator in a society comprised of "multicultural" incoherence?
Back in the sixties and seventies the fever broke out in a plethora of self-identifying groups with cognized issues, all aided and abetted and inflamed by that scourge of mankind (oops), the Modern Sociologist ... in search of his/her niche-issue/sinecure via bad grammar and fuzzy wording.
The United States is peculiarly susceptible to this inflammation of the mind because it is a cultural wasteland. No.. I do not mean culture-as -commodity (we have lots of that, some of it quite good) but as cohesion. This is a complex topic which cannot be discussed under a character limit. Suffice to ask: What is the necessary common denominator in a society comprised of "multicultural" incoherence?
11
Much ado about not much. College students being self-absorbed and thinking the world should revolve around their concerns, that's a shocker.
The really dangerous mania for "safe spaces" is the tendency to self-insulate from "unsafe" news sources. Liberals can't abide listening to Fox, conservatives get the vapors from CNN and MSN. Protesters at political events are herded into "free speech zones." Colleges and universities aren't the only places where raucous debate and intellectual conflict are going missing.
The really dangerous mania for "safe spaces" is the tendency to self-insulate from "unsafe" news sources. Liberals can't abide listening to Fox, conservatives get the vapors from CNN and MSN. Protesters at political events are herded into "free speech zones." Colleges and universities aren't the only places where raucous debate and intellectual conflict are going missing.
125
"I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs."
If this was said by a creationist, a climate-change denier, or an opponent of same-sex marriage, we would have no problem criticizing, dismissing, even mocking them. Should we then coddle our own kids?
If this was said by a creationist, a climate-change denier, or an opponent of same-sex marriage, we would have no problem criticizing, dismissing, even mocking them. Should we then coddle our own kids?
45
"I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs."
So you had to take shelter behind a video of playful puppies???
Bravo, Deas, for pointing out the shallow ridiculousness of this. We should NOT be coddling this sort of nonsense.
So you had to take shelter behind a video of playful puppies???
Bravo, Deas, for pointing out the shallow ridiculousness of this. We should NOT be coddling this sort of nonsense.
4
It should be easy to sort out these irrationally protective fears from the healthy, necessary protections provided by society. Are university administrations really unable to confront these childish ideas? That makes me more upset than the childish ideas. I suppose that we should recognize that some health care professionals are part of this problem, and their professions need to figure it out. Confronting these ideas or this ideology is an important social and intellectual task, and universities must step up. In a time when we are destroying the biosphere, sticking your head in the sand is a popular way to confront the distressing dangers of reality. How different is this kind of stuff from laws proclaiming that we cannot mention climate change?
9
The very fact that "self-infantilize" is an apt description of a cultural phenomenon is why ISIS or whatever other rogue brutality that eventually washes up on our shores will make short work of making every space unsafe.
Stick a fork in America and turn her over. She's done. The meat of the culture is so soft you don't need teeth to chew it up.
Stick a fork in America and turn her over. She's done. The meat of the culture is so soft you don't need teeth to chew it up.
19
What's next? Home colleging?
158
Brilliant.
1
I know of one case where this is happening. The parents are laden with advanced degrees, of course.
1
Well, the University I work at has been trying to get faculty to teach in the dorms for years... Administrations are the great advocates of infantilizing students. While this trend has played out in recent decades, administrative/non-teaching positions have swelled. One reason tuition costs have gone through the roof is because of all these deans, sub-deans, baby deans, advisers, counselors, etc.
2
College life has gone done hill since the 1990s, when political correctness polluted thought and created a suffocating intellectual environment. Glad I'm not a college student, I finished in the 1980s. Also glad not to have any children in college.
14
I have one that graduated, one graduates this spring, the last goes in September. The stories my kid's tell about some of the shenanigans, we'd laugh if we weren't paying so much money (instate tuition and it's still a king's ransom). We always pushed the hard sciences and our kids stayed with that, no problems there, but when they had to take another class in the social sciences, that's when the stories came.
1
Thank you NYTimes for protecting us from whatever dangers lurked in the word that was rendered as "guts."
"Ms. El Rhazoui replied, somewhat irritably, “Being Charlie Hebdo means to die because of a drawing,” and not everyone has the guts to do that (although she didn’t use the word guts). She lives under constant threat, Ms. El Rhazoui said. The student answered that she felt threatened, too."
"Ms. El Rhazoui replied, somewhat irritably, “Being Charlie Hebdo means to die because of a drawing,” and not everyone has the guts to do that (although she didn’t use the word guts). She lives under constant threat, Ms. El Rhazoui said. The student answered that she felt threatened, too."
14
Does the safe space offer sanitized blankies, bibs, and pacifiers?
If not,what's the point?
If not,what's the point?
14
This article engages with one extreme--the flight from controversy and challenge. The other extreme is bad, too--engaging with the unacceptable and giving it a veneer of acceptability. AKA in the media as "balance."
2
Who decides what's unacceptable? You, your peers? Do we vote? Perhaps we can divide the country between regions of acceptable/unacceptable areas. You can pick which group makes you feel more comfortable.
These supposedly progressive students share a deep confusion between feelings and facts with much of the right. Sen. Inhofe doesn't "believe" in global climate change, ergo it does not exist. These students "feel" more threatened than someone who is actually under a death threat, therefore the journalist shoud apologize to them. It is the infantile reaction of the spoiled child- that the world revolves around them and that if the world refuses to fall in line, they will hold their breath until they turn blue (or read Dr. Seuss stories on TV until the Senate does what they want). Small children are excused since this kind of behavior is developmentally appropriate. But not so much for 20 year old Brown students or middle-aged senators. The only solution is for the world to push back, hard. These folks are not going to self-regulate. We let them run over the top of us at our own peril - and theirs too.
24
Article is spot on. Except for one point..the over programmed child is not the reason that children are infantalized. Our son was programmed throughout his life like every other child in our community. But we sent our son away to school with the ability to think and discuss from a myriad of viewpoints. We openly debated ideas in our home and consistently taught respect for viewpoints. In fact it was not hard to do, as each person in our family has several conflicting viewpoints on any number of issues that were openly and vigorously discussed continually.
However, once he got to college his entire understanding of acceptable discourse has changed. He embraces the concept of trigger warnings, can't deal with opinions that question his belief system (which is wildly leftist) and parrots every leftist propaganda idea presented. I suspect that this attitude is something he learned in school from professors who broker no dissent and no argument. Professors who routinely characterize those that disagree with them as monsters, racists, and fascists (yes a great deal of cognitive dissonance abounds in college).
While we deal with bringing him back to the reality that in the US you are allowed to have any opinion you want and that you are entitled under the First Amendment to express it, we are mollified by the reality that in the end, real-life, work-a-day world will cure him of his self-righteousness and one day he will ineffect get back on the path of growing up.
However, once he got to college his entire understanding of acceptable discourse has changed. He embraces the concept of trigger warnings, can't deal with opinions that question his belief system (which is wildly leftist) and parrots every leftist propaganda idea presented. I suspect that this attitude is something he learned in school from professors who broker no dissent and no argument. Professors who routinely characterize those that disagree with them as monsters, racists, and fascists (yes a great deal of cognitive dissonance abounds in college).
While we deal with bringing him back to the reality that in the US you are allowed to have any opinion you want and that you are entitled under the First Amendment to express it, we are mollified by the reality that in the end, real-life, work-a-day world will cure him of his self-righteousness and one day he will ineffect get back on the path of growing up.
9
'...Our son was programmed throughout his life like every other child in our community...'
If your son was 'programmed throughout his life', which is done by parents, it can hardly be surprising that he is susceptible to programming now.
If your son was 'programmed throughout his life', which is done by parents, it can hardly be surprising that he is susceptible to programming now.
1
'we are mollified by the reality that in the end, real-life, work-a-day world will cure him of his self-righteousness and one day he will ineffect get back on the path of growing up.'
Only if you don't continue to support him financially. Best of luck truly.
Only if you don't continue to support him financially. Best of luck truly.
1
You can't challenge an idea if no one is allowed to express it to begin with.
28
It's the bubbles, coloring books, puppy videos and Play-Doh that concern me. Why not Nuks and sippy cups as well? If there's going to be a "safe-space" let it be full of consciousness-raising literature, so that the students who feel threatened can develop the intellectual wherewithal to challenge things.
14
"microaggressions — subtle displays of racial or sexual bias " What a perfect trap. You can say anything can be a microagression. No wonder college tuitions has become so high when you are paying people to worry about this PC nonsense.This is suppose to represent the real world? I am deeply worried for your students and our country.
22
Really important issue which cuts to the very quick what a university should be, and what free speech is all about. I recall when my university invited in George Lincoln Rockwell, the infamous American Nazi. Could that even happen today? And can the learning and discussion which resulted then happen today?
9
I guess they stopped teaching kids, "Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me.".
The Russians and the Chinese are going to eat our lunch one day. What a weak, infantile people we've become.
The Russians and the Chinese are going to eat our lunch one day. What a weak, infantile people we've become.
20
"Ah! Big words! I need my Binky!"
19
Beautiful!!!
1
Eric, it's an OPINION piece. It's her opinion. She's not required to provide room for "balance".
4
You know the "movement" - embodied in the "anti-rape" or "anti-speech" or "its unsafe here" crew - has jumped the shark when the Times permits an op-ed writer to so expose the madness that comprises this thinking. Hopefully, that signals a turn from Alice in Wonderland world we seem to be running toward.
But, I am not going to hold my breath, just laugh at the madness. My own kids are smarter than these fools and will run past the purveyors of this nonsense to their own successful futures.
But, I am not going to hold my breath, just laugh at the madness. My own kids are smarter than these fools and will run past the purveyors of this nonsense to their own successful futures.
7
What a total bunch of nonsense! All I can say to those who scurry off to the "safe room"----Suck It Up Buttercup!
14
It seems inconceivable that, in our civilized world, we remain so intolerant of others, and so dogmatic about our little 'cocoons', that solidarity and inclusion are nowhere to be seen. Of course, hate speech is to be condemned, no matter where it comes from...but let it not become a slippery slope to stifle dissent and destroy a necessary conversation. The College/University setting, seems a unique and privileged place to discuss all and everything that reason and emotion deem to be a human endeavor. And if you are concern about 'hurting' the sensibilities of certain individual(s), no worthwhile mature issues may come to the fore. And that would be a huge loss. Now, if only the speaker would allow some time and space for counterarguments and dissension, in a safe environment, freedom of expression would bloom, and the benefits for all to see. Let us not allow the muzzling of our minds, that would be a crime, also an insult to our intelligence and feelings. Also, please, do not take things always personally, and lets not take ourselves too seriously. To avoid breaking, lets bend a bit.
4
If you have been raped on campus, you are not safe. But turning to play-doh and videos of romping puppies will not make you safer. In 1965, I moved to New York City, at about age 25, and it was far from being a safe city. My friends and I knew it. So we never went alone to parties or any evening event, or bicycle riding, or long rambles in the park or anything that had the odor of danger about it. We went as two- and three-somes. If one of us had a date, we still did not leave the others to go to parties or events on their own. If we met someone we liked at such an event, we made plans to meet the new person somewhere else, some time else, in a "safe" environment - one of our apartments. We took our commitment to each other's safety quite seriously. Once at a rather wild party in a loft (there was a swing!), one of my friends approached me and asked it I was doing what I wanted to do. I'd been drinking, and I was necking with a stranger in a corner. She meant well and sure enough, I wasn't doing what I wanted to do. We laughed and left the party together. This kind of exploration is better and "safer" than hiding in a pink room. It acknowledges danger and draws its teeth. Once I broke the deal and went alone to a party in the Village. My drink was spiked and I had a truly terrifying trip home to Long Island. There's safety in numbers, ladies!
24
Don't blame parents; blame elementary, middle, and high schools for replacing thoughtful liberalism with knee-jerk political correctness.
If you don't agree, it could be that you've never heard a 7-year-old repeat offender bully lie his way out of it yet again by claiming it was the victim who'd "used hurtful and destructive words." He'd mastered the technique at a young age.
If you don't agree, it could be that you've never heard a 7-year-old repeat offender bully lie his way out of it yet again by claiming it was the victim who'd "used hurtful and destructive words." He'd mastered the technique at a young age.
14
The crux of the quandary is that the current University milieu is confused about which takes precedence : its role as the "home away from home" of students or the home of intellectual discourse.
7
Thank goodness I can go on the internet and find safe, liberal places that pretty much insulate me from Republican nonsense I find threatening.
1
It is said that the toddler Krishna ate dirt. Sounds pretty unsafe, but when his mother opened his mouth to clean it out, she saw the cosmos. A little dirt on the way to the cosmos sounds like a good path, to me.
14
"The safe space, Ms. Byron explained, was intended to give people who
might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The
room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, PlayDoh, calming
music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students
and staff members trained to deal with trauma."
These people are not the equal of any adult, male or female. They are not functional humans. If this is what the current university "education" and "experience" is about, it's past time to pull the plug.
might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The
room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, PlayDoh, calming
music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students
and staff members trained to deal with trauma."
These people are not the equal of any adult, male or female. They are not functional humans. If this is what the current university "education" and "experience" is about, it's past time to pull the plug.
16
One more step towards the dumbing and numbing down of americans ... it's sad and frightening how assuredly we are walking away from the principals our country was established for. Life hurts, life challenges, and one learns and grows from engagement in real life, not a cocooned one. I see this as another big win for big pharm, and the large industrial complex (and the politico's they pay to represent them). They want us to step in line, banish individual complex thoughts, and feelings, so we can behave as they need and purchase their goods.
9
Most of us know there are few adults in today's US society but few understand just how childish we can be.The more we pamper our youth,the more entitled they become and hence,less prepared for the real world.Educators have a particularly important role in preparing college kids for life after school.Instead,they indulge extremism,whether by encouraging indiscriminate use of terms like "rape survivor"or by helping trivialize the concept of safety at a time when real risks are so abundant.
11
Safe spaces can never be external. As long as you feel the need to be sheltered from the world around you, you will never be safe, no matter how many childlike treats and toys are served up. Our only path to safety is a strengthening of our inner emotional and intellectual core. Life is not safe and comfortable and it will never be so. Maturity comes from experiencing the good and the bad and recovering to move forward.
If you label yourself a victim, then you are.
If you label yourself a victim, then you are.
37
As a survivor of sexual abuse I can say that after a period of time, one has to rejoin the human race by becoming a bit more thick skinned. Do things sometimes bother me? Yes, of course. But I wanted to live in the world and not be mothered to death by well meaning therapists and friends. Overprotecting these women for long periods does not help them re-enter society but adds to the emotional damage by not teaching them how to cope in uncomfortable situations.
30
There's another aspect to this, and its "follow the money". Colleges and universities are businesses, and when the customer protests, adjustments must be made.
13
Just hearing about numbers feels threatening to me and causes my heart to race and my head to ache to this day, all because of very bad personal experiences I had while attending college! I trust that my alma mater will ban all mathematics classes so that current students are not traumatized by hearing about calculus and statistics the way I was.
Not to mention eliminate sending bills each semester filled with those absurdly large tuition numbers, all preceded by a very large and threatening dollar sign.
Not to mention eliminate sending bills each semester filled with those absurdly large tuition numbers, all preceded by a very large and threatening dollar sign.
24
If universities need to provide "...cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies…" to protect their fragile students from "...feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against [their] dearly and closely held beliefs”, it seems to me that the parents of said fragile students are wasting an awful lot of money on overpriced daycare. I thought the whole point of going to collect was to expand your horizons/stretch your mind by being exposed to other viewpoints. Even given the fact that higher "education" nowadays is more about job training than learning to think, what happens to these overprotected graduates when they enter the business world? Maybe HR departments will start setting up cookies/play-doh/puppy break rooms on company time.
23
When I was in college over 15 years ago, I took a class that focused on racism and racial prejudice. One day, I started a discussion in class about racism vs. Sexism. It got rather raucous and ended up taking over the whole class period. During the professor's next set of office hours, I went to apologize for taking his lesson plans so off course. I will never forget his response. He said that it was okay because colleges are one of the few places where these things can be discussed and debated openly. It is sad to see that this may no longer be the situation, and society will suffer for that.
41
There seem to be many people who are in need of professional help and who, instead of taking a semester or year off, are expecting the university community to change to accommodate them. What is sorely missing in our universities and our conversations today is a world view. We take our problems and turn in and magnify them instead of looking out and putting our experiences into perspective. Instead of honoring doctors and nurses returning from treating Ebola patients, we overreact and shudder in unscientific and unreasonable fear. We denigrate the Peace Corps because of rare tragedies. We cower in fear. Do we think a healthy life is lived with our minds turned in on ourselves and our feelings, or with minds strengthened by knowledge (knowledge is power)? I worry that women spend more time studying their "victimization" than strengthening and healing themselves and taking responsibility for how they live their lives. The elite sue in the workplace/academic world for sexual harassment while the powerless victims of sexual harassment work in the shadows. Our country has never been more terrifying, with the poor and powerless being ignored, with people who are different still being marginalized, with people emboldened to promote their own unscientific beliefs (vaccination/birth control/morning after pill) as fact, and with politicians taxing the poor over the rich. We need strong, healthy minds and courageous leaders. Will they come from "safe space?"
20
I am sorry, but I must point out what this is all about. This is about shutting down free speech, particularly speech that is contrary to the current political agenda. The people being used to promote this are young girls. I believe it is obvious why.
13
Politicial correctness has always been a poison to intellectual discussion in a college campus. This article shows what happens when political correctness is allowed to fester, rather than stopping it immediately has should have been done.
The funny thing is that many people who espouse political correctness consider themselves "liberals". Perhaps a dictionary is in order.
The funny thing is that many people who espouse political correctness consider themselves "liberals". Perhaps a dictionary is in order.
16
Republicans coined the expression "political correctness" to denigrate new ideas about how we should treat each other.
Are we talking politics here?
Are we talking politics here?
TRIGGER WARNING
If theses artificial "Safe Spaces" help prepare college graduates to better clean toilets, make lattes, flip burgers, or become obedient cubicle drones, then I'm all for them.
In other words, the real warning should be about the thousands spent upon useless degrees. Is there a "Safe Space" for that trauma?
If theses artificial "Safe Spaces" help prepare college graduates to better clean toilets, make lattes, flip burgers, or become obedient cubicle drones, then I'm all for them.
In other words, the real warning should be about the thousands spent upon useless degrees. Is there a "Safe Space" for that trauma?
10
Twenty is the new ten.
45
And what about people who don't go to college? Face it, we're talking about coddling the privileged. The hypersensitivity is manifestly elitist and narcissistic.
21
George Orwell, look down on us! You would never have expected that people would pay a fortune to avoid a real education.
25
I disagree with the idea that an opposing idea could invalidate the experience of victims. The minute reasonable people hear such talk, I think they will become motivated to act to eliminate any "culture" that endangers peoples' well being. It's a little like trying to decide what is good if there is no evil. We all have to see both sides, for our own "good."
2
I have told my daughter her entire life not to be rude to people but that she also does not have to be over accommodating. If she thinks they're weird or make her uncomfortable, walk away. Period. I pray she never experiences a sexual assault but the last thing in the world I would encourage her to do as an adult (we are talking about adults here) is blow bubbles or color to get through it. Resorting to infancy when you have already felt overpowered and helpless makes no sense. Women are born into a life where we are weaker physically (on average mostly) by men which makes us hyper vigilante and wise beyond our years. Being sexually assaulted is not a weakness of mind or character. It is simply a weakness of physical strength. It's time we start asking why the rapist rapes and not blow bubbles. Nobody would be blowing bubbles if they were attacked by a bob cat or a pit bull. Making yourself less in control gives these animals the control they desire. Start voting for longer sentences for sexual predators. That means every election.
16
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole point of higher education is to not only prepare for a career but also be exposed to different/counter ideas to one's own? What is going to happen to these "adults" when they enter the job world and have to deal with conflict with colleagues, office politics and criticism from their boss? Will companies have to install "safe rooms" where these employees can go to curl up with a blanket, coloring books and a box of crayons?
15
Excellent piece, and long overdue. Restores my trust in the Times, too, to publish viewpoints that run contrary to the latest, trendy herd narrative. And Mr. Shapiro deserves special praise for his courageous expression of, well, what the college experience is supposed to encourage: critical thinking, and not just a label.
13
Yes, seems much more like a WSJ opinion piece.
1
Well, I guess it could be worse. In Pakistan they beat and burn people who disagree with them. Oops, I bet I just violated someone's safe space.
17
People like Katherine Byron are some of the most dangerous people in America. They do not take freedom of thought or speech seriously. They will squelch any thought they do not agree with and before you know it democracy comes to an end.
8
I'd say "shrinks" and "desensitization" techniques need brought back into vogue. Coddling only empowers the sensitivities of the mamby pambies while relieving them from having to deal with, whatever...It's on the individual to learn how to cope not on society to coddle the overly sensitive.
2
Sounds like the idea of a safe space has been overdone. But what bothers me about this article is that it seems to attack the least powerful people. The article does not recognize that the people in the majority are already in a "safe space". For example, there's no equivalent of the "n-word" for whites. And a person can get in a lot of trouble and offend a people in the majority just by bringing up issues of diversity. People in power, people in the majority enjoy a "safe place" by default. What's wrong with others looking for the safety? The idea needs to be modified not thrown out.
4
I'm glad that you don't know the various denigratory equivalent words for white folks. I assure you that they exist. Why you would imagine that nasty, hateful words are used only against one group or another is actually rather sad and narrow.
2
Before you are admitted to college, you are supposed to be too big to hide under mommy's bed to get away from all the scary things in the real world.
21
This way of thinking makes me feel unsafe. I am terrified of the world this could create. After attending a workshop on handling these students at the university where I teach, I suffered a severe panic attack. Went to the park and sat there crying. I don't want to teach these people. This is merely another form of bullying.
40
"The safe space... was intended to give people who might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies...
This is COLLEGE? I get the point but not the execution. unfortunately it sounds like pre-K.
"Safe spaces are an expression of the conviction, increasingly prevalent among college students, that their schools should keep them from being “bombarded” by discomfiting or distressing viewpoints."
Why then go to college classes anyway? I teach graduate psychology and I was asked by a student to be "careful" about what I say in class. Not politically, but in case anything I say (examples of abnormal behavior, effects of abuse, etc.) might "trigger" someone in class. But psychology, sociology, political science, etc. by nature can be disturbing. Schools have counseling centers to help students who are distressed. I support that. But there is still a concept of freedom of speech and further academic freedom where professors should determine material and not whitewash it. Then that is censorship.
This is COLLEGE? I get the point but not the execution. unfortunately it sounds like pre-K.
"Safe spaces are an expression of the conviction, increasingly prevalent among college students, that their schools should keep them from being “bombarded” by discomfiting or distressing viewpoints."
Why then go to college classes anyway? I teach graduate psychology and I was asked by a student to be "careful" about what I say in class. Not politically, but in case anything I say (examples of abnormal behavior, effects of abuse, etc.) might "trigger" someone in class. But psychology, sociology, political science, etc. by nature can be disturbing. Schools have counseling centers to help students who are distressed. I support that. But there is still a concept of freedom of speech and further academic freedom where professors should determine material and not whitewash it. Then that is censorship.
52
Wow. How times have changed. Almost 40 years ago as a college freshman I was nearly date-raped, before classes even began, by a graduate student 10 years older (a seminarian!) who got me drunk on sweet cocktails.
I've never wallowed in feeling like a 'survivor' of assault. I never even told my parents (who were a thousand miles away). This was in 1976, and I viewed the experience as a harsh lesson in socialising and trust. I just moved on.
This article reflects the insidiousness of helicopter parenting, which has infantalised university-age students and created a binary (safe v unsafe) antiseptic existence that flies in the face of messy human experience. What a pity. One can't develop a backbone if one is protected from all of life's challenges, controversies and, yes, dangers.
I've never wallowed in feeling like a 'survivor' of assault. I never even told my parents (who were a thousand miles away). This was in 1976, and I viewed the experience as a harsh lesson in socialising and trust. I just moved on.
This article reflects the insidiousness of helicopter parenting, which has infantalised university-age students and created a binary (safe v unsafe) antiseptic existence that flies in the face of messy human experience. What a pity. One can't develop a backbone if one is protected from all of life's challenges, controversies and, yes, dangers.
44
Amen. At age 60, I am not going to detail all the various sexual assaults I have survived, which varied in seriousness from gropes and scary stalkers to all-but-penetration and attempted gang rape. Several of them happened while I was backpacking alone, abroad, in my 20s. In such situations, trust me, the authorities in Athens, Istanbul, or Tel Aviv are not going to offer you a quiet room with Play-Doh and cookies. Quite the opposite - if the cops listen to you at all, they are likely either to figure you asked for it or to make a pass at you themselves (yes, that happened, in Athens). Do I remember them? Yes, in varying degrees of detail. But I don't consider myself a victim, nor a survivor, though I suppose technically I am both; that identity just doesn't 'do it' for me. And I certainly don't cherish my 'victimhood' in the way some of these women appear to.
1
Women worked like slaves in the US and elsewhere to get the vote because they believed that their ideas and input were important . The idea that they ought not have to listen to ideas contrary to their personal "beliefs" questions the value of women's judgement. it seems to suggest that If women need special treatment and protection, maybe allowing them the vote, and social status and freedom outside the family as well, is a mistake.
Come on ladies: toughen up and bite the bullet, like your mothers and their mothers before them. Now that you are on part of the political process, behave as though you both belong there and that you actually know what you're doing.
Come on ladies: toughen up and bite the bullet, like your mothers and their mothers before them. Now that you are on part of the political process, behave as though you both belong there and that you actually know what you're doing.
23
I'm a psychotherapist. The purpose of therapy is healing and the purpose of college is precisely to challenge people's beliefs. I don't teach college and I don't expect college classes to do therapy. If I had a patient who was a college student who was too troubled to handle controversy I would suggest she take a semester off and do more intensive treatment. PTSD is very treatable and most people recover. These "safe space" advocates not only have the wrong idea about what college is, they have the wrong idea about what PTSD and therapy are. People with PTSD are supposed to get treatment so that they can recover and function the way normal people do. Infantilizing people with PTSD and giving them the message they will never recover is destructive. --Anne Rettenberg LCSW
114
Play-doh?
Cookies?
Wahhhhhwahhhh I want my mommy......
And as for this nonsense of
*Feminist and anti-racist legal scholars argued that the First Amendment should not safeguard language that inflicted emotional injury through racist or sexist stigmatization.
You lose. The First Amendment does not say government shall not restrict speech unless it hurts someone's feelings and then it is okay to make restrictions
* One scholar, Mari J. Matsuda, was particularly insistent that college students not be subjected to “the violence of the word” because many of them “are away from home for the first time and at a vulnerable stage of psychological development.”
Uh huh...... and what about the 18 year old who join the Army when they can not afford prolonged time in the baby-sitting psych-ward that colleges have become and who gets real bullets shot at them? Now that is violence
Or the 19 year old who can not afford the protected world of college and who has to going out and get a job unloading trucks - and who - oh horrors - hears coworkers swear and say not-PC-things?
Your mommy is not going to be able to stop someone somewhere saying something that will upset you or -- horrors - "invalidate" (psycho-speak twaddle) your views.
The world is NOT some group psychotherapy session. Deal with it.
Cookies?
Wahhhhhwahhhh I want my mommy......
And as for this nonsense of
*Feminist and anti-racist legal scholars argued that the First Amendment should not safeguard language that inflicted emotional injury through racist or sexist stigmatization.
You lose. The First Amendment does not say government shall not restrict speech unless it hurts someone's feelings and then it is okay to make restrictions
* One scholar, Mari J. Matsuda, was particularly insistent that college students not be subjected to “the violence of the word” because many of them “are away from home for the first time and at a vulnerable stage of psychological development.”
Uh huh...... and what about the 18 year old who join the Army when they can not afford prolonged time in the baby-sitting psych-ward that colleges have become and who gets real bullets shot at them? Now that is violence
Or the 19 year old who can not afford the protected world of college and who has to going out and get a job unloading trucks - and who - oh horrors - hears coworkers swear and say not-PC-things?
Your mommy is not going to be able to stop someone somewhere saying something that will upset you or -- horrors - "invalidate" (psycho-speak twaddle) your views.
The world is NOT some group psychotherapy session. Deal with it.
43
Why do people always (and I do mean ALWAYS) take a good idea and run it to the extreme where it becomes destructive, stupid, and a joke. The PC movement start as a legitimate concern about language and people's feelings. Now it has descended to the level where adults need puppy video to help them cope with too, too scary and mean world "“I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs,” Ms. Hall said." And she says without a trace of irony. Ms. Hall does not see she is a joke, a caricature of Politically Correct gone mad. Yes, the parents who wrap their little darling into a ever expanding safety cocoon have a share in the blame. But most of it most go to the college administrators who have forgotten why college exist and cave into this type of nonsense.
40
I'm not saying that "a legitimate concern about language and people's feelings" is not an arguable point (or also whether woman should be clothed except for eye slits, and speaking of slits, whether or not is legitimate to slit their throats if they date someone unauthorized by their father), however in this country it has been decided up to this point in the negative (on both issues) and defended through a number of wars fought by millions who have--to paraphrase something I learned in an era of non-PC schools--mutually pledged to each other their Lives, their Fortunes and their sacred Honor.
I think that at this point in time anyway, people with hurt feelings just have to either shove them, or perhaps go to any remaining non-PC school and read the words of Thomas Paine:
"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
I think that at this point in time anyway, people with hurt feelings just have to either shove them, or perhaps go to any remaining non-PC school and read the words of Thomas Paine:
"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
• The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma.
• Safe spaces are an expression of the conviction, increasingly prevalent among college students, that their schools should keep them from being “bombarded” by discomfiting or distressing viewpoints.
I thought "university" was a place to explore different, "discomfiting or distressing viewpoints"; discover, experience and learn.
How do you address something like sexual assault without free and open discussion of it?
Schools or nannies??? When did the university's mission become 'to cuddle' rather than educate; to insulate rather than expose. When did it become 'Romper Room'?
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~ PLATO
• Safe spaces are an expression of the conviction, increasingly prevalent among college students, that their schools should keep them from being “bombarded” by discomfiting or distressing viewpoints.
I thought "university" was a place to explore different, "discomfiting or distressing viewpoints"; discover, experience and learn.
How do you address something like sexual assault without free and open discussion of it?
Schools or nannies??? When did the university's mission become 'to cuddle' rather than educate; to insulate rather than expose. When did it become 'Romper Room'?
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~ PLATO
40
So what about subjects like climate change? Will Universities avoid such troubling discussions because they may be too disturbing? Sounds crazy, but that seems to be the logic here.
13
people who need play doh and bubbles to deal with opinions they don't agree with will have a hard time coping with adult life. What will they do when their parents die, their children get sick, or they lose a job.
35
Please refrain from suggesting that people die, get sick, or lose jobs, as this can be a very disturbing concept to some.
Thank you, and have a nice day.
Thank you, and have a nice day.
8
I lost both of my parents in the last two years; I was fired from my job. What to do? I found another job, later quit and decided to go back to school. As to my parents, I was sad, sure, but I accepted decades ago that we all come to same fate.
There was a time when my responses would not have been considered exceptional.
There was a time when my responses would not have been considered exceptional.
1
I don't deny that sometimes this idea of safe space and trigger warnings is taken too far, but I don't know how widespread this problem really is across all U.S. campuses. I recently showed a film about relationship violence among college students, and told my students ahead of time that if they thought, because of their own experiences, that they might find it anxiety-inducing, let me know and they wouldn't have to attend. Out of 472 students, one took me up on the offer and another said she wasn't sure how she would respond so I suggested she sit near an aisle so that she could easily leave if she wanted. The much bigger problem in my class is getting students to pay attention at all. About 10% are failing simply because they almost never come to class. A larger portion are skating by with a 1.0 or 2.0 because they either think that they are here to party, they attended an underresourced high school and have no idea how to study, or they are foreign students with inadequate English skills and spend most of their time in class looking up words that I say. The "delicate sensibilities" of students at Columbia are not the major barrier to intellectual development compared to the other issues going on in higher ed in this country.
18
Anxiety disorders are real. They often begin in adolescence and young adulthood. They can have many triggers. The extreme reaction to perceived threats is an indicator.
Treating the anxiety disorder may gain more positive outcomes than comes from trying to eliminate perceived threats.
I do sympathize with the sufferers of anxiety disorders; my mother suffers greatly. She often feels unsafe. But we (including her) recognize that it is her reaction that is more damaging to her than the perceived threat.
I am not pathologizing the view of the persons in the article . The views are worthy of discussion. But if you have such an extreme reaction to another person disagreeing with you; that you require a safe room - that is a pretty good sign you need professional help. Please get it.
Treating the anxiety disorder may gain more positive outcomes than comes from trying to eliminate perceived threats.
I do sympathize with the sufferers of anxiety disorders; my mother suffers greatly. She often feels unsafe. But we (including her) recognize that it is her reaction that is more damaging to her than the perceived threat.
I am not pathologizing the view of the persons in the article . The views are worthy of discussion. But if you have such an extreme reaction to another person disagreeing with you; that you require a safe room - that is a pretty good sign you need professional help. Please get it.
25
And one of the major treatments ....exposure!
7
All this "don't offend me" stuff is a natural product the "heiicopter parent" culture we now live in. Hanna Rosin covered this in her Atlantic essay, The Over-Protected Kid. The "real world" is the difference between wading into the big surf at an ocean beach and playing in the kddie pool. Grow up, people. Life will hurt and you'd better learn to deal with it.
13
The transition from the sheltered world of academia to the real world has always been difficult for students. The mission of college is to challenge not coddle so as to make the transition easier. This absurd trend to protect students from anything that might offend them in any way will only make it much worse. Students entering the job market are going to be in for some real shocks as they realize that they aren't the center of the universe and the world doesn't care very much
about their fragile souls.
about their fragile souls.
21
what an insightful and thoughtful article. Sadly it also seems courageous on the part of the writer in this "PC Safe"culture we have developed for ourselves. Write on Ms. Shulevitz!
21
Please, this is ridiculous. Being exposed to viewpoints that really go against one's "dearly and closely" held beliefs is part of growing up and learning that the world is unfair and bad things do happen to good people for no reason and there is considerable inhomogeneity out there. There is room for decorum - not talking about hanging in the presence of the family of a man who has been hanged - but babying adults like this... What will happen to these over-coddled immatures when they get into the real world and the boss uses rough language and people around them act naturally instead of kowtowing to their childish demands?
22
If the Safe Space concept prevails, knowing how much traction their particular viewpoint has achieved will elude advocates, will it not, since there will be no measure of dissent?
4
This is a bunch of lazy jousting at low-hanging rhetorical fruit. She doesn't engage in any meaningful way with what 'safe spaces' are meant to be or meant to accomplish, or how they're implemented in the vast majority of cases. Instead, she cherry-picks examples in which she can find elements to mock.
And all the while she's introducing her own terms to mis-characterize what's intended. If she engaged honestly, she'd give her targets a chance to speak to usages like "insulate" (which is her term, not theirs, and her bad-faith interpretation of the intent, not the actual intent -- or result, in the vast majority of cases).
And all the while she's introducing her own terms to mis-characterize what's intended. If she engaged honestly, she'd give her targets a chance to speak to usages like "insulate" (which is her term, not theirs, and her bad-faith interpretation of the intent, not the actual intent -- or result, in the vast majority of cases).
10
Every safe space for an adult is mockable. Extremely mockable. Children need safe spaces. Adults need to...get this...become adults. Instead of staying a child in need of a safe space.
7
While I agree with many of the points this article is trying to make, I also find the authors tone a little disconcerting. The first thing I noticed early on in the article was this quote “Bringing in a speaker like that could serve to invalidate people’s experiences,” she told me. It could be “damaging.”
Unless the speaker actually used air quotes when being interviewed, I will assume she viewed the situation as damaging, not "damaging". Ms. Schulevitz might want to be a bit more careful about overlaying her skepticism onto somoene else's words.
Unless the speaker actually used air quotes when being interviewed, I will assume she viewed the situation as damaging, not "damaging". Ms. Schulevitz might want to be a bit more careful about overlaying her skepticism onto somoene else's words.
3
I agree that attempting to shield oneself from all forms of 'disturbing' thoughts is a fool's errand, but I'm also troubled by what this article seems to be trying to imply--that these women are weak, overprivileged, cosseted, and therefore ridiculous. Perhaps it would be a better use of time to consider why so many young women feel traumatized and emotionally threatened by 'hostile' viewpoints, rather than essentially mocking them for wanting a safe space. Perhaps the derision should be saved for the abusers. Yes, these women's goals and actions may seem immature, but we should remember that a huge number of women have been abused in one way or another, and the desire to create a few 'safe' pockets of the world is understandable.
11
Honestly I think if they find life so traumatising perhaps they should be sent off to an island where they can start from scratch and build their own un-scary world.
Society today seems to be making both men and women weaker and pandering to that and implementing changes like this only makes things worse.
We have this ridiculous victim complex infested feminism which seems to be affecting so many naive young girls these days. They come out of university thinking they have been a victim of silly fictional nonsense. Gender studies courses and womens studies courses instil this weakness in mainly women and then throw them out into the real world afraid of men and afraid of living their life.
Its quite sad really how far this brainwashing has got.
Society today seems to be making both men and women weaker and pandering to that and implementing changes like this only makes things worse.
We have this ridiculous victim complex infested feminism which seems to be affecting so many naive young girls these days. They come out of university thinking they have been a victim of silly fictional nonsense. Gender studies courses and womens studies courses instil this weakness in mainly women and then throw them out into the real world afraid of men and afraid of living their life.
Its quite sad really how far this brainwashing has got.
2
Here is a pivotal moment in an account published in the Harvard Crimson by "Anonymous" about a sexual assault that caused a young woman to fall into a serious depression. It was published in the March 31, 2014 Crimson as "Dear Harvard" You Win." I doubt the Times will publish the link, but it might answer some of your questions. "He was a friend of mine and I trusted him. It was a freezing Friday night when I stumbled into his dorm room after too many drinks...." At no time did this young woman get up from the bed she had gone to voluntarily. I will not defend the young man's behavior (you can read for yourself what he is claimed to have done), but the audacity of this woman claiming full victimhood with an opening like this - and her failure to so much as try to get up from her friend's bed - do not get my sympathy. My attitude is now called "victim blaming." No one is calling this woman on her own behavior. No one is asking her to take a second's worth of responsibility.
7
Thank you! I completely agree. The article makes some fair points about free speech, but her tone was supremely condescending. Ms. Schulevitz took a few examples of creating safe spaces (e.g. Playdoh, puppy videos) and warped them into evidence to show how students are supposedly "less hardy" that students of the previous generation. How insulting.
1
This is the new generation gap. Welcome to it.
6
The good news is that only 24 students opted for the coloring books.
7
The bad news is that 24 students at a top-notch university needed a safe space when all they had to do was not attend a lecture.
11
If students at Brown University need to play with play duh and watch videos of frolicking puppies rather than hearing about things that might disturb them, then perhaps they belong back at home, where their parents can read them bedtime stories.
65
All you war heroes suffering from PTSD: man up, you don't need no safe spaces. The author suffers from a pathologic lack of empathy.
3
Internal peace cannot be achieved by external means.
3
Yes. Because a college freshman at Brown is the same thing as a soldier with PTSD.
5
Deferring to the most "sensitive" among us is an intellectual loser. We should ban driving because it is the roads are a threatening environment -- especially to those who fear that some drivers are drunk or on cell phones?
What's next -- sensitive religious students who believe in "Intelligent Design"/Creationism protesting that the teaching of Evolution in Science classes by a professor (who has the power to grade them) is inflicting psychological damage by creating a hostile, disrespectful environment?
What's next -- sensitive religious students who believe in "Intelligent Design"/Creationism protesting that the teaching of Evolution in Science classes by a professor (who has the power to grade them) is inflicting psychological damage by creating a hostile, disrespectful environment?
200
Here you have picked out the irony of the entire situation. Lefties claim intellectual superiority over anyone who holds religious beliefs, and yet it's the Lefties that need a safe space full of Play-Doh and puppies, and the religious who hear their beliefs daily assaulted and simply move on.
5
Aren't several Midwestern Governors, state legislators and universities doing that already?
Doesn't Florida do that by punishing employees who dare mention "global climate change".
Doesn't Florida do that by punishing employees who dare mention "global climate change".
3
If there are dangers in this world - and there are - it ill suits us to pretend they don't exist. Perhaps students need to know that rape is all too possible, and not discussing it will not help them be wary of getting into situations that make them vulnerable, that date rape exists.
Knowledge is power, and knowing about potential trouble and how common it is is part of growing up.
The less entitled know all about danger. What parent can protect their child from being fired, or not even hired. Nobody can shelter people from life itself.
Our opinion that we are entitled prevents us from facing danger in a practical and useful way every day. Discussing problems only with those who provide the opinions we wish to hear is endangering all of civilization in the case of climate change/global warming.
Learning to think requires challenge. Learning at its best is threatening to preconceived ideas and the safety of the known.
Long live the pursuit of knowledge!
Knowledge is power, and knowing about potential trouble and how common it is is part of growing up.
The less entitled know all about danger. What parent can protect their child from being fired, or not even hired. Nobody can shelter people from life itself.
Our opinion that we are entitled prevents us from facing danger in a practical and useful way every day. Discussing problems only with those who provide the opinions we wish to hear is endangering all of civilization in the case of climate change/global warming.
Learning to think requires challenge. Learning at its best is threatening to preconceived ideas and the safety of the known.
Long live the pursuit of knowledge!
18
The issue of how to balance free speech with language that incites or harms is a complicated one, and the college campus is perhaps the worst environment in which to resolve such an issue. If my experience of college is any indicator, it is an environment in which silliness and self-absorption run rampant, because it is dominated - let's be honest - by not-yet-formed people somewhere betwixt childhood and adulthood. If we let that culture define what is "safe," then we are all in trouble. And the focus of this article on the college environment seems utterly misplaced and not helpful or instructive, but it gave Ms. Shulevitz something to write about.
2
And while these aggrieved groups twist themselves in emotional knots with righteous handwringing, young men put their heads down and continue to become leaders, creators and innovators in the real world.
How is that a surprise?
How are these women supposed to become our next entrepreneurs and CEOs if they cannot bear conflict, confrontation or even uncomfortable ideas?
Self-infantilization indeed.
How is that a surprise?
How are these women supposed to become our next entrepreneurs and CEOs if they cannot bear conflict, confrontation or even uncomfortable ideas?
Self-infantilization indeed.
14
hmmm - you seem to think this is a woman's issue. Men are just as good at putting their heads in the sand. What if somebody challenged *your* ideas? Would you open your mind, or just assert the superiority of men and be sure you are right?
4
Considering it is modern day feminism that is making women exactly like this article describes, yes it is a women issue.
2
Oh Susan. How is this NOT a woman's issue?
1
I was under the impression that Unicersity was the place children left home to become adults, to be challenged intellectually and emotionally. If this is what's being churned out of college then God help us all. And, thank you helicopter parents.
19
Very true, when I went to university it was a time of growing up and letting go of childish emotional based fears. In fact it was about facing your fears and overcoming them for a lot of people.
Modern day feminism has been the cause of this change. The way it tries to treat all women as victims, tries to instil fear in them. This ridiculous over sensitivity that is brainwashed into them is why we find ourselves here.
Modern day feminism has been the cause of this change. The way it tries to treat all women as victims, tries to instil fear in them. This ridiculous over sensitivity that is brainwashed into them is why we find ourselves here.
2
Precisely. When are these girls expected to become woman? ever?
1
First and foremost, Ms. Shulevitz dismisses safe spaces as infantile; she clearly doesn't recognize their purpose: to protect victims of crimes (physical or emotional) from powerful triggers that leave them in shambles and are emotionally destabilizing. In this article, she negates the existence of these powerful attacks and their physical effects, which can include panic attack-like symptoms. By negating the importance of a "safe space" (a term that she so denounces), she fails to acknowledge that yes, victims of such crimes are worthy of protection.
2
If someone is going to be "left in shambles" or experience panic attacks merely because of words, they should probably be in psychotherapy. If therapy doesn't work, they should take a leave of absence from college until they can learn that there are ways to deal with panic attacks.
6
But, given their emotional fragility, should they be in college?
4
No one was forcing those victims of an awful crime to attend the debate, first of all. Secondly, the piece had more to do with the over-extension of the concept of a "safe space" to include shielding students from any viewpoint that may somehow offend them (and there is no such thing as a right not to be offended, btw) or from criticism.
5
Kudos to Adam Shapiro of Columbia University (mentioned in the article). He seems to have been able to see through the "safe space" nonsense at his university. Mr. Shapiro seems to be a clear thinker, who may have a good future ahead of him, while his fellow students hide from thoughts they don't like and cower in the protected "spaces" they create.
9
This excellent piece immediately brought to mind this quote:
"The trouble is that, with all popular movements, the lunatic fringe so quickly ceases to be a fringe; the tail begins to wag the dog. For every woman or man who is quietly and sensibly using the idea to examine our assumptions, there are 20 rabble-rousers whose real motive is desire for power over others, no less rabble-rousers because they see themselves as anti-racists or feminists or whatever." – Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing
"The trouble is that, with all popular movements, the lunatic fringe so quickly ceases to be a fringe; the tail begins to wag the dog. For every woman or man who is quietly and sensibly using the idea to examine our assumptions, there are 20 rabble-rousers whose real motive is desire for power over others, no less rabble-rousers because they see themselves as anti-racists or feminists or whatever." – Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing
17
A colleague of mine recently prefaced a few paragraphs of remarks on the situation in the Middle East (he's a Political Scientist) with the phrase "Trigger warning." In Facebook! Good grief, I thought. . .
5
Is this article cribbed from The Onion?
I grew up believing colleges were where good ideas flourished, and bad ideas died as they were disproven.
This helicopter generation, reared by parents who wanted "friends" instead of children, whose social interaction is face-to-screen instead of face to face, have no concept of how the real world works. Differing opinions are actually encouraged; disagreement isn't life threatening, and the "safe place" for all of us is in our own intellectually-challenged minds.
I grew up believing colleges were where good ideas flourished, and bad ideas died as they were disproven.
This helicopter generation, reared by parents who wanted "friends" instead of children, whose social interaction is face-to-screen instead of face to face, have no concept of how the real world works. Differing opinions are actually encouraged; disagreement isn't life threatening, and the "safe place" for all of us is in our own intellectually-challenged minds.
7
Friends and, in some cases, accessories
I live a few blocks from a well-known university that posts trigger warnings on every gate leading onto campus. Those gates say "Veritas."
20
HR class of 88 here. Nice joke, Cantabrigian.
Anyway -- these students are in for a rude awakening. The business world doesn't care about creating safe spaces. It does have to deal with discrimination, which is not the same thing. Office politics is not for the faint of heart, and these students need to get a grip. Otherwise, they won't have any professional success. Their bosses are not interested in being their parents.
Anyway -- these students are in for a rude awakening. The business world doesn't care about creating safe spaces. It does have to deal with discrimination, which is not the same thing. Office politics is not for the faint of heart, and these students need to get a grip. Otherwise, they won't have any professional success. Their bosses are not interested in being their parents.
2
This is a depressing trend. I'm not for a deliberately hostile environment, but this is not how the world works. My late father, a very professionally and personally successful man, raised me by letting me know what the real world was like, and that there would always be people you could count on to help and protect you, but you can't and shouldn't expect that from everyone. He would half jokingly tell me quite often..."It's a jungle out there, kid..." I got the message, and he was right. It's disturbing to myself that I sound like an old codger, but I'll say it anyway...this just seems like so much "mollycoddling". Grow up, people. I highly doubt that any of our military or economic enemies on the global stage take time out in safe rooms. We should worry that some here do, and are promoting this as such a great idea.
19
Students have burrowed into cocoons for sure, but the cocoon is signified by a smartphone. They go through the academic experience with their heads down, thumbing or swiping a screen displaying torrents of trivia but nothing in the way of fresh ideas that would compel them to look up and confront the world as it is.
19
"Mari J. Matsuda, was particularly insistent that [if] college students [are] targeted and the university does nothing to help them, they will be 'left to their own resources in coping with the damage wrought.'" Good. Being left to your own resources is how you develop resources. It's how you learn. Can the process be painful? Yes, it can.
39
Wowwwww, I'm I glad I don't have any college age children. The world is a tough place. A competitive place. A learning place. At times there are no "Safe Places" to run to, no "Safe" people to talk to. What in the world are we spending such large sums of money on at universities if we teach students that they are all entitled to a "Safe Place" when things get rough? Sexual assalt is an evil thing and I have compassion on those effected by it but we can't stay victims our whole life. Playdoe, are you kidding me?
32
No where is safe that is pretty clear. You can be a tourist visiting a museum one minute and dead the next.. I so agree with you.
1
Just wait until businesses are required to provide "safe rooms", with crayons and cookies, for employees who are traumatized by views to problem-solving that run counter to theirs.
Re Eleanor Taylor's illustration: Maybe a womb would have made for a more accurate representation of the "safe place."
9
Well, if that's not an opening for a joke, I don't know what is. And if a safe place is necessary to even state such, I suggest one's closet. Lock it. Stay there. Forever, please.
The womb is already suggested by the figure in fetal position. No need to be so literal. I read the illustration as saying that they are protecting themselves from what they may "hear" and by extension, experience.
2
my only hope is that we've reached the point where a trigger warning will be required to let lecture attendees know that there will be a trigger warning associated with the lecture; then it will be "...turtles all the way down...".
6
What would Zeno do? And, Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus, Musonius,...?
1
'then it will be "...turtles all the way down...".'
What about students who are terrified of turtles? Maybe they had a bad experience at an aquarium or something. The mere mention of reptiles, amphibians, shells, etc. sends them curling up under the desk in the foetal position, thumb in mouth. Obviously we need a safe space for them. With Dr Seuss books (please omit Yertle, an obvious trigger).
What about students who are terrified of turtles? Maybe they had a bad experience at an aquarium or something. The mere mention of reptiles, amphibians, shells, etc. sends them curling up under the desk in the foetal position, thumb in mouth. Obviously we need a safe space for them. With Dr Seuss books (please omit Yertle, an obvious trigger).
2
God, ya gotta love these elite college kids! Your band can't come to campus because of its racial composition? We won't listen to a debate on abortion between two men? What hubris, what jejune thinking. What false humility and false compassion.
44
"self-infantilize" sums it up perfectly.
37
I teach middle school. This piece also applies to how parents and administrators expect us to treat 14 year olds.
4
This piece is a good and necessary follow up to the recent NYT article "The Case for Free Range Parenting." The two are inextricably linked. In the "New American Childhood" the first restrictions are physical; then in post adolescence the restriction becomes intellectual. How do we steer the ship from away from these shoals?
31
I guess this means that all Starbucks will be removed from college campuses soon.
17
Where will the safe spaces and trigger notices be for these cosseted collegians when they venture out into the adult world? Or will they stay inside a self-imposed bubble, no longer victims but enablers of the current political divide that threatens tbe country's core freedoms, reading & watching only those news sources with which they already agree?
The US has always had a strong anti-intellectual strain prevalent in its culture. It's discouraging to see it spread in the country's universities.
The US has always had a strong anti-intellectual strain prevalent in its culture. It's discouraging to see it spread in the country's universities.
32
Before we start condemning America's college kids..let's remember this article is primarily highlighting an incident at an Ivy League School...and it's pretty safe to say the Ivy League is not representative of America as a whole, filled as it is with great alumni like Thomas Gilbert Jr, Stan O'Neal and Ted Cruz.
5
Ah but America says otherwise in electing presidents (Clinton, Bush, Obama) almost exclusively from Ivy League schools, presidents who go on to tell us they are one of "us", and setting inane policies based on their experiences at their colleges.
5
What? Ivy league kids are who will control the future. Their parents are able to get them into elite schools, and then hire them out of college into positions that a normal kid would never get straight out of school, I don't care how good their internships were. Nepotism is very much alive and kicking. Knowing who someone's relation is where I work is a good way of recognizing the danger zones - you can't touch those people no matter how badly they may be doing the job or treating other people. And they are of a far greater ilk and political persuasion than you imply.
3
But not Scott Walker...
2
Colleges need to make up their minds. Are college students children with the protections granted to children and the consequences faced by children? Then fine, go back to in loco parentis, bring back dorm parents and check-ins, etc. Ease them into adulthood with cookies and crayons. The problem is that colleges give students the freedom of adults and then balk when those adults do something wrong or get themselves into situations that are above their heads. Student criminals are protected and often not expelled. Corporations, both private and public, have few problems balancing free speech with inappropriate speech. Working adults get the picture or get fired.
10
Protected groups dictate what can be said or not said. Students are merely getting the script they will need to socially survive in today's society.
4
I thought the purpose of education and ideas was to make you uncomfortable.
43
They fooled you.
1
Blame the parents? How about grow up!Life is tough. The same who preach about multi cultural ideas and people..can't stand it if we all don't think a like.
21
Blame the university. What is going on there?
Re 1515732
Actually multiculturalism is about the open expression of ideas and beliefs. The purpose it to learn from one another and NOT shut down conversation.
I do agree with you though that these people need to grow up.
Actually multiculturalism is about the open expression of ideas and beliefs. The purpose it to learn from one another and NOT shut down conversation.
I do agree with you though that these people need to grow up.
The extent of the infantilization of society can be traced, in no small part, to the proliferation of a phrase. Instead of "I think", speakers in every venue, public and private, substitute "I feel".
28
The fault for all this nonsense lies with the helicopter mommies and daddies who have hovered just above their precious kiddies since the day they were born. I could get really depressed about this, except for the fact that I teach at a Big Ten university where this particular brand of idiocy doesn't get much traction, either from the students or the professors.
The NY Times should really try to get out more. American higher education is actually in much better shape than a narrow focus on the schools where the 1% are educated would have you believe. Most of the country is doing just fine, thank you.
The NY Times should really try to get out more. American higher education is actually in much better shape than a narrow focus on the schools where the 1% are educated would have you believe. Most of the country is doing just fine, thank you.
14
This is a delicate subject for a lot of women subjected sexually. I spent time studying human trafficking which had been a growing problem in Ohio. Mostly women, sometimes young men, would be trafficked using the Ohio Turnpike as mode of transportation. One victim referred to the service station parking lot as "working the line," individuals passed between vehicles for unspeakable work. The only people that will fully understand sexual assault are victims, period.
For those of you who say these women can't make in in "the real world" should feel blessed they've never had to deal with the underside of the REAL WORLD. I am not a victim, but I can respect what this trauma has caused them.
For those of you who say these women can't make in in "the real world" should feel blessed they've never had to deal with the underside of the REAL WORLD. I am not a victim, but I can respect what this trauma has caused them.
2
I agree insomuch as these women very likely suffer from PTSD, a mental health condition, and not just an outraged feeling based on some of the other examples in the article.
Sexual trauma is not new, and was in my experience far worse when it was not acknowledged or recognized. Respect for trauma versus cossetting it are two different things. Unfortunately it is up to the individual to deal with it; to find a way through it as best they can. Eliminating disparate opinions or the rough-and-tumble outside world only puts off the moment when one must face up to that - and may additionally decrease the individual's chances to learn/discover/create how to do so in a safer world and as a child-becoming-adult instead of in the real world where mistakes in so doing can be more costly.
5
There is a distinct anti liberal bias in the examples cited. There are many examples of students being offended by such radical theories as evolution, or any philosophy which challenges the conservative mindset.
This starts with the parents.
This starts with the parents.
9
Evolution is not a radical idea, sorry to inform you.
2
Sorry to say, Joanne (although I agree with you) that in many quarters, evolution IS a radical idea. I speak as one who has taught it for years. I've been reported to the powers-that-be for mentioning the e word (in a biology class!), and been accused by students of trying to undermine their faith, although I make a point of saying that I do not want to get into religious debates in a science class. (Over a beer in the bar is another matter.) I have even been required to prove that students had been duly warned about the horrors of evolution (in my syllabus) before the subject came up in class.
p.
p.
2
The real world has always been scary that's true.
But only by slowly expanding a culture that refuses to tolerate sexual assault, bullying, racial discrimination and a host of other evils can we 'change' the real world in any way.
And only by offering comfort to those who suffer traumatic pain due to previous assaults of our 'real' world will we build people strong enough to continue to effort to bring changes in the 'real world'.
It is easy to 'simplify' this effort to make change with words like 'play-doh'. That doesn't help at all.
But only by slowly expanding a culture that refuses to tolerate sexual assault, bullying, racial discrimination and a host of other evils can we 'change' the real world in any way.
And only by offering comfort to those who suffer traumatic pain due to previous assaults of our 'real' world will we build people strong enough to continue to effort to bring changes in the 'real world'.
It is easy to 'simplify' this effort to make change with words like 'play-doh'. That doesn't help at all.
6
Refusing to tolerate bullying and racial discrimination sounds good, until you realize that whoever has the power to define those terms then has totalitarian control.
3
This sort of emotionally overwrought, solipsistic cowardice is what you get when you replace a masculine culture with a feminine one. The conflict and occasional danger necessary for exploration is subsumed by a preoccupation with safety. Civilization was made from sterner stuff than play-doh and puppies.
17
I would argue that a resultant feminine culture, if it exists, is a direct result of the excesses of our over-masculine, hyper violent culture. The latter wrought the former, and attention should be paid to this evolution.
1
No, it's what you get when the brutality of the past is not replaced with humanistic ideals. Remember, the generators of the feminine culture you apparently detest are cut from the same stock as the macho idiots who think rape is part of their reward.
"The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies...."
If Kubrick were still alive, he would have a field day with this.
If Kubrick were still alive, he would have a field day with this.
24
Perhaps Kubrick's work in this sphere might depict mandatory corporate play pens for overwrought employees.
The only way to overcome emotional trauma is to look it straight in the eye and overcome it. You must actually come to terms with it, not as a victim, but it's something that happened. It's over. And you cannot let it run your life for the rest of your life. If you do that, all you've done is be a perpetual victim of our own making.
There is no truly safe place in the world as death takes us all. So stop running from it.
There is no truly safe place in the world as death takes us all. So stop running from it.
29
I wonder if any of the students so studiously avoiding any possible "trigger" realize the enormous, continuing power over their lives they are granting their traumatic experience(s)?
40
If college students think that the university environment is "unsafe", they are in for a very rude awakening upon graduation.
33
Many parents raise their children in isolation, doing everything they can to protect their children from everything. We have become a nation where accidents shouldn't happen, where every crime is on the news, where people are told to be afraid. The truth is the opposite: Accidents will always happen, there has always been crazy crime -- but less so now than in the past decades, and there is less reason to be afraid on a local level (global may be a different story).
I've worked at several institutions and have seen this kind of thought infiltrate even well-meaning organizations. We seem to be losing our ability to debate, to inform others of our opinions, without being strident and loud and pushy about them. As one commenter noted, there are times to hear, to be a little insulted, but then brush it off and move on. We are a nation who finds outrage every day -- over nothing -- because it is easier than focusing on the big problems.
I've worked at several institutions and have seen this kind of thought infiltrate even well-meaning organizations. We seem to be losing our ability to debate, to inform others of our opinions, without being strident and loud and pushy about them. As one commenter noted, there are times to hear, to be a little insulted, but then brush it off and move on. We are a nation who finds outrage every day -- over nothing -- because it is easier than focusing on the big problems.
10
It is, unfortunately, a very short journey from the kind of thought policing on campuses described here to the kind of thought policing engaged in by climate change deniers (Florida agencies, anyone?), the Chinese politburo (remember Tiananmen Square?), and ISIL.
Tell me you can make a good argument for the kind of "safe spaces" those entities want to provide.
Tell me you can make a good argument for the kind of "safe spaces" those entities want to provide.
7
I read the title of this article and entered at my own risk. My suggestion to those who might feel threatened by thoughts/ideas is to not attend debates that might scare you.
10
Society should accommodate the sincere concerns of its members; but not if the accommodation becomes an undue burden.
Curtailment of free speech is an undue burden and many of these 'safe space' requests sound insincere.
Curtailment of free speech is an undue burden and many of these 'safe space' requests sound insincere.
4
The First Amendment provides freedom of speech. No you cannot yell "Fire" in a crowded movie theatre. But that should be the extent of it. The Left keeps adding to a lengthening list of things we cannot say because it hurts their feelings, their sensitivities or invades their fantasy bubble. And we cannot solve real social problems if we cannot speak the truth; even inconvenient truths.
9
Oh, please. This isn't an issue of left or right. This is a direct result of the way people are raising kids today, afraid they will be abducted so they give them no freedom, over scheduling what should be free time so they can't play or have time to think. This is an extension of the odious trend of helicopter parenting.
6
Not just THE LEFT. There is as much if not more insulation from THE RIGHT. Maybe this is a reason we cannot discuss ideas together any more.
Oh, come on. Laws in Oklahoma, etc. mandating preferred fundamentalist Christian or conservative worldviews in curriculum prove that a number of groups do this.
"Safe spaces" simply increase the growing numbers of helicopter staff at colleges and universities. After all, somebody has to be assigned to worry about students' feelings, meet about them, plan about them, etc. If we really want to shield students from bad feelings, discomfort, anguish, etc., we should get rid of Greek systems, grading, and selective admissions. It looks like dampening academic freedom may be only the first small step in the feel good movement.
11
There are institutions to help people who are so traumatized that they cannot hear a word, term, or idea, and they are not institutions of higher learning.
If you are too traumatized to function without deeming some thinking off limits, the answer is to work on fixing yourself, not to try to turn your college into a trauma center.
If you are too traumatized to function without deeming some thinking off limits, the answer is to work on fixing yourself, not to try to turn your college into a trauma center.
42
Dear Miss Hall: “ feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs” is EXACTLY why you go to college. Dearly and closely held beliefs need to be challenged at every opportunity. Do yourself a favor, don't retreat to crayons and coloring books. Open your ears to new voices and new points of view.
453
Oh, JV: We ought to be "nice" and "sensitive", preferably kumbaya. To everyone, every time also at expense of a decently open academic debate.
These are new times, with 62% of college students now being women, the masculine debate battles are things of bad, combative, macho yesterday. There is no way to turn back?
These are new times, with 62% of college students now being women, the masculine debate battles are things of bad, combative, macho yesterday. There is no way to turn back?
This article seems to conflate students avoiding uncomfortable intellectual debate (even demanding it be removed from campus) and students publically confronting viewpoints and behavior they find ethically unacceptable. Those seem to be very different things. The former has no place in college, while the latter seems an essential part of the college experience (and itself an exchange of ideas).
The author seems more interested in calling kids soft than in encouraging a robust exchange of ideas.
The author seems more interested in calling kids soft than in encouraging a robust exchange of ideas.
4
From "Class: a Guide Through the American Status System" (1983), by Paul Fussell:
"Where the more fortunately educated read to be surprised, the middle class reads to have its notions confirmed, and deviations from customary verbal formulas disconcert and annoy it."
"Where the more fortunately educated read to be surprised, the middle class reads to have its notions confirmed, and deviations from customary verbal formulas disconcert and annoy it."
5
Bravo. Should be mandatory reading at universities.
8
A very long time ago when I was in high school, it was in the latter 60's, I had a teacher whose favorite saying was that he was going to "put a burr under our blankets." Sometimes he made the most outrageous statements in class, many of which would be considered to be "inappropriate " today. The students in that class realized he was trying to make us think and be to able to defends our opinions. It's sad to think that students in college today are incapable of listening to anything that may make them uncomfortable.
21
Boy, times change. If you suggest something to an insecure and unpopular person they might just go with it. When I was the ripe age of 18 I was jumping off of a Huey gunship piloted by another 18 year old looking for the remains of 15 guys lost the night before. They did not want to be there by the way. They were drafted. We found them, unfortunately. I succeeded in life by remembering that morning and the 312 mornings that followed. There were no cookies when we landed with what remained of that squad and a half.
33
I took quite a different lesson from the reporter's anecdotes than she did. What I read was a sequence of instances in which campus debate is in full vigor. Students, faculty and administrators are debating how to be kinder, debating whether it is more important to be kind than truthful, and debating what the truth actually is. In the author's anecdotes, pretty much every statement provoked a counter-statement.
Sound to me like college campuses are doing just fine.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
Sound to me like college campuses are doing just fine.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
89
"debating whether it is more important to be kind than truthful"
This is no debate at all. It is often possible to be truthful and kind at the same time, and most human being learn this skill without needing to go to college.
But the truth must always be more important than kindness. If not, then colleges are selling a fraudulent product.
This is no debate at all. It is often possible to be truthful and kind at the same time, and most human being learn this skill without needing to go to college.
But the truth must always be more important than kindness. If not, then colleges are selling a fraudulent product.
2
Beyond the obvious - that when these hothouse flowers get out into the real world they're in for a shock, that clearly they're not ready for higher education (and their lower education was deficient), that anything meaningful enough to be worth saying is going to upset someone (and often the things that most need saying are the most upsetting), that an argument that can't stand up to challenge is exactly the one that needs to be challenged - we need to call out a form of bullying going on here. Namely, making someone else responsible for your feelings and requiring them to walk on eggs lest they upset you. I have known such manipulative people who use their 'fragility' as a whip to get everyone else to dance to their tune - 'for God's sake, don't set her off, you know how she gets' - to usurp the spotlight and enslave entire circles of family and friends. This variation is increasingly popular.
There was a time when victimhood was something one strove to transcend and repudiate, not embrace and valorise. We've become a nation of perpetual wound-lickers. Grow up, get over yourself.
There was a time when victimhood was something one strove to transcend and repudiate, not embrace and valorise. We've become a nation of perpetual wound-lickers. Grow up, get over yourself.
36
Why isn't this comment a Times Pick? Well done!
1
At the risk of starting a temptest, does anyone else see a connection between a generation of parenting designed to cushion children from every threat (perceived or real); a culture where every child on a sports team "wins" to avoid hurt feelings; the cuddled, coddled, cooed to generation of kids who have elevated personal entitlement to an art form; and these same kids who have no tolerance for academic debate? Seems to me this is a line of inquiry worth some scrutiny.
Having made this statement, I do understand that for victims of trauma certain events will be upsetting. But to turn university campuses into universally safe spaces where no rigorous debate can take place is travesty.
Having made this statement, I do understand that for victims of trauma certain events will be upsetting. But to turn university campuses into universally safe spaces where no rigorous debate can take place is travesty.
23
Please, let's not overgeneralize and talk about all "college kids". What this op-ed addresses is the very long tail of a very wide distribution of sensibilities. I have taught undergraduates for over 25 years, and I am convinced that the average college student has become more informed, more tolerant, and more ready to tackle the world after college.
If some students feel that they need safer environments that protect from those "headwinds" and they are brave enough to speak up for those needs, then good for them. This is also part of free speech. But it is definitely not a sign that universities now have turned into kindergartens.
If some students feel that they need safer environments that protect from those "headwinds" and they are brave enough to speak up for those needs, then good for them. This is also part of free speech. But it is definitely not a sign that universities now have turned into kindergartens.
123
If they need a room full of cookies, Play-Doh, and bubbles to hide from their problems, I don't think these students are in any way more ready to face the world.
2
That may be true but the fact that there are "safe spaces" makes me conclude that universities are more like kindergartens than they should be. This is disturbing. As an old woman of the 60s generation, I think these kids need to grow up. Their parents and their K-12 education must have been way too "safe" for my liking.
6
'...they are brave enough to speak up for those needs...'
When those needs include blankies and stuffed animals, there is nothing 'brave' about it.
When those needs include blankies and stuffed animals, there is nothing 'brave' about it.
1
There's a fine line, here...
Protecting the exchange of viewpoints is important. While, of course, protecting from points of view is anathema.
In Universities, as anywhere else, those who assert some control should ensure BOTH.
Still, standing up for what one believes should never be made too easy. It's in the very defense of our values that we shape and strengthen both them and us.
As it is in life.... it's the hawk that makes the squirrel swift....
Protecting the exchange of viewpoints is important. While, of course, protecting from points of view is anathema.
In Universities, as anywhere else, those who assert some control should ensure BOTH.
Still, standing up for what one believes should never be made too easy. It's in the very defense of our values that we shape and strengthen both them and us.
As it is in life.... it's the hawk that makes the squirrel swift....
5
It seems to me that anyone this fragile should not be permitted to have a driver's license because, after all, "road rage" might be encountered in an unsafe place. Nor should students be allowed to go to bars because these, too, would seem to be "unsafe" places (unless the bar has a Pla-doh and bubble room on the premises). Fraternities, sororities and sports stadiums also would have to be modified or closed because these clearly are "unsafe" places. If college administrators were not invertebrates, at least one of them might suggest these, and other, limitations on student behavior.
12
Everyone is special today, and when they are not feeling special they are victims now apparently entitled to feeling "safe" all the time. So many good points in the piece and the comments, but the last paragraph really nails it in that being so convinced and self centered, they lose all perspective.
15
God knows nobody goes to college to learn anything.
5
Whatever happened to "That which does not kill us makes us stronger"?
9
This doesn't apply to today's fragile little dears.
1
George Will said it best. To paraphrase, "liberals believe in diversity in everything - except thought."
5
Yes indeed...like today's right wing. No ideology is immune.
5
Nowhere in this article -- I read it twice -- was there a mention that these issues are being raised by "liberals." Conservatives and independents and others are also involved. I decry attempts to censor speech -- better alternative is to not attend, go and wear earphones in a gesture of protest, go and walk out, confront the speaker during Q and A, etc.
But I also decry efforts like yours, to make everything partisan and political, and cast blame. To turn the tables, must conservatives politicize everything???
But I also decry efforts like yours, to make everything partisan and political, and cast blame. To turn the tables, must conservatives politicize everything???
6
Ironic that a statement like that would come from George Will. He is so known for flexibility of thought....
You can't raise college kids like veal...that's not what college is supposed to do. They are supposed to foster thinking and making them responsible adults. The marketplace of free thinking and ideas.
When Fordham University's student body demanded that Ann Coulter not give a speech...while at the same time allowing every communist nudnick to speak...and Frodham buckled to pressure...I knew it was over.
When Fordham University's student body demanded that Ann Coulter not give a speech...while at the same time allowing every communist nudnick to speak...and Frodham buckled to pressure...I knew it was over.
4
The question really is why would Fordham even think about inviting Ann Coulter to speak? There must be other conservatives who are more intelligent and thoughtful in presenting their issues and concerns.
5
"Being Charlie Hebdo means to die because of a drawing," is a little misleading. A drawing can be an intensely disturbing or deeply insulting thing, just as a photograph or a movie can.
Of course, nobody should die because of a drawing, a picture, a movie or any other imagery they may have produced, but to suggest that "a drawing" is an inherently trivial thing is misleading.
Universities should invite people like Ms. El Rhazoui to speak, but the fine line between respectfulness and political correctness shouldn't be glossed over in doing so.
http://cultureworld21c.blogspot.com/2015/01/je-suis-charlie-999_10.html
Of course, nobody should die because of a drawing, a picture, a movie or any other imagery they may have produced, but to suggest that "a drawing" is an inherently trivial thing is misleading.
Universities should invite people like Ms. El Rhazoui to speak, but the fine line between respectfulness and political correctness shouldn't be glossed over in doing so.
http://cultureworld21c.blogspot.com/2015/01/je-suis-charlie-999_10.html
2
All of those things you mention are indeed inherently trivial compared with a human life.
I don't think the speaker was being deprecating to her own life's work as a cartoonist. If she were a painter, writer, filmmaker, etc I suspect her answer would be identical with that work substituted instead.
I don't think the speaker was being deprecating to her own life's work as a cartoonist. If she were a painter, writer, filmmaker, etc I suspect her answer would be identical with that work substituted instead.
My 16 year old grandson recently played Petruchio in a high school production of "Taming of the Shrew" (brilliantly, his mother assures me though thanks to weather I couldn't go). Everybody loved the play, she also told me, save for a small group who found Shakespeare's ideas so upsetting that they criticized the whole idea of a school mounting the play. Presumably the Bard of Avon, lacking a twenty-first century consciousness (poor fellow), should be approached with caution and perhaps even have his mouth washed out with soap.
10
What's next? Bassinets for university babies? Grow a spine or get out of the way.
10
Universities are supposed to prepare students for the real world. The real world is not safe. This ain't rocket science.
Dan Kravitz
Dan Kravitz
15
Initially I thought she was talking about rape victims and the need to protect them from triggers that would recall the event. The proposed debate I would have thought would have fitted well into resolving and moving forward the issues but obviously I missed something.
As for suppressing debate or positive commentary because it could upset or disturb that is even more worrying. So nothing positive rather juvenile note passing and lets hope nothing goes wrong. That isn't exactly th way to make progress towards a more open and accepting society.
As for suppressing debate or positive commentary because it could upset or disturb that is even more worrying. So nothing positive rather juvenile note passing and lets hope nothing goes wrong. That isn't exactly th way to make progress towards a more open and accepting society.
3
Perhaps I'm too old to understand, but, while I was reading this article, a nursery rhyme from my youth kept running through my thoughts. Apparently, it is no longer taught to young children:
Sticks and Stones
Can break my bones,
But words
Can never hurt me.
Sticks and Stones
Can break my bones,
But words
Can never hurt me.
18
The college students of today are the children of people who came of age and went to college in the 1970's and 1980's. The real story here can be traced directly back to the trends that started in the campus culture of those decades. I don't mean helicopter parenting, although if the campus culture was as rough-and-tumble back then as people now seem to think, one wonders why all those strong debaters with tough hides ended up treating their children like hothouse orchids. The larger story is massive self-segregation by tribe, interest group, affiliation group. In France, we try however misguidedly to prevent people from spinning off into small homogenous groups of the like-minded. Perhaps American college campuses should start defending the ideals of universal participation, the duties of the campus citizenry, the overall values of a common culture rather than the reverse, which seems to encourage everyone to sort into small groups of the like-minded--and gives great, indeed overwhelming privilege, to claims of difference over claims to commonality.
180
With all due respect Guillaume, France's concept of "universalism" has had its share of cultural and political shortcomings. If laïcité is meant to "prevent people from spinning off into small homogenous groups of the like-minded" it is undermined by the the ideological insistence of French nationalism (i.e., we are "all" French and must behave as such). You are right that American "self-segregation" and its attendant identity politics has launched its own brand of totalitarianism. But I am not convinced that France's common culture of "liberté, égalité, et fraternité" serves "commonality" well if one is not white, heterosexual, and French-by-birth. Democracies are a messy business. Thankfully, if the United States and France share a "commonality," it is the vibrant and assertive debates that both places continue to engage. Let us hope this remains a democratic truth.
3
The real world is going to destroy these people. They are so unprepared in so many ways. Scarily, they are going to be teaching in our schools, working for our businesses and government agencies.
Life is tough.
Deal with it.
Better to learn how to do that before you have to get up and go to work everyday, before you have responsibilities and others are relying on you.
Life is tough.
Deal with it.
Better to learn how to do that before you have to get up and go to work everyday, before you have responsibilities and others are relying on you.
57
No sir, the problem is that they will eventually destroy the real world not the other way around.
2
My first reaction is that I’m with those who seem shocked that universities are becoming more like pre-school havens for kiddies—play-don and puppies? My second reaction is, wait! Universities have never been really radical and open in their thinking. From time to time, groups of students have been rebels, even some members of faculty have been rebels, but never the administrations or the faculty en masse.
Of America’s 4,500+ Title IV institutions, which are better known for their philosophical ferment as opposed to their football teams or fraternity scandals? Part of the notion of the purity of the “university” comes from the pen of John, Cardinal Newman? A Catholic cardinal promoting freedom of thought? Not exactly. But that’s how the majority want our “universities.”
A very nice couple on a flight to Ireland enlightened me. Having criticized Reagan for being soft on Commies, they asked: How do you get to DC? Answer: Go to Harvard and turn Left.
Of America’s 4,500+ Title IV institutions, which are better known for their philosophical ferment as opposed to their football teams or fraternity scandals? Part of the notion of the purity of the “university” comes from the pen of John, Cardinal Newman? A Catholic cardinal promoting freedom of thought? Not exactly. But that’s how the majority want our “universities.”
A very nice couple on a flight to Ireland enlightened me. Having criticized Reagan for being soft on Commies, they asked: How do you get to DC? Answer: Go to Harvard and turn Left.
1
When I was a college student living near Marble Arch in London's West End, we would head over to Speakers Corner in Hyde Park to walk among the competing orators, each one opining away with great gusto.
Speakers Corner celebrated and violated free speech. On the one hand, it was a place where anyone was free to speak in any way on any manner.
On the other hand, Speakers Corner was a virtual zoo where those with strong opinions were penned up, walling off their opinions from the rest of the world, which became a "safe space" for citizens who preferred not to be exposed to anything upsetting.
In 1978, American neo-Nazis planned a march through Skokie, Illinois, which was the home of many Jewish death camp survivors. As much as my stomach turns when I consider how ignorant and bereft of compassion a person would have to be to embrace the Nazi philosophy, I stood with the ACLU when it defended free speech.
Defending free speech means defending ideas that are to you the most odious. When Richard Dawkins is invited to speak at, say, Oral Roberts University, I will know that those who bill themselves as Libertarian are as serious as I am about promoting free speech.
No one should be forced to hear a speaker who makes light of the listener's pain. However, should trauma survivors choose to boldly participate in such discussions, they can't help but exude an authority that could in a trice expand their fellows' safe space from an jejune room to an adult arena.
Engage.
Speakers Corner celebrated and violated free speech. On the one hand, it was a place where anyone was free to speak in any way on any manner.
On the other hand, Speakers Corner was a virtual zoo where those with strong opinions were penned up, walling off their opinions from the rest of the world, which became a "safe space" for citizens who preferred not to be exposed to anything upsetting.
In 1978, American neo-Nazis planned a march through Skokie, Illinois, which was the home of many Jewish death camp survivors. As much as my stomach turns when I consider how ignorant and bereft of compassion a person would have to be to embrace the Nazi philosophy, I stood with the ACLU when it defended free speech.
Defending free speech means defending ideas that are to you the most odious. When Richard Dawkins is invited to speak at, say, Oral Roberts University, I will know that those who bill themselves as Libertarian are as serious as I am about promoting free speech.
No one should be forced to hear a speaker who makes light of the listener's pain. However, should trauma survivors choose to boldly participate in such discussions, they can't help but exude an authority that could in a trice expand their fellows' safe space from an jejune room to an adult arena.
Engage.
266
Puhleeze. Shielding oneself from opposing viewpoints that "go against your closely held beliefs" is ludicrous. Are you afraid that your beliefs may crumble if you listen to an opposing viewpoint and you may change your mind? Is your faith in your own beliefs so weak that you cannot defend them? Avoiding listening to an opposing viewpoint is one of the reasons for polarization in this country. All these "safe spaces" is just an extension of the helicopter parents that don't want little Johnny or Susie to be exposed to anything that may upset their delicate systems.
68
I think it's quite telling that the 'safe space' described for college students who felt threatened by a debate about sexual assault contained crayons and Play-doh - children's toys. Children may not know how to deal with their emotions when confronted by someone who holds a point of view that feels painful to them, but adults should. Why are we so determined to be victims these days? Why not a "strength space", where those who feel their experiences are not being validated or respected can learn to respect themselves enough not to care what others think and to enter the debate with the power of their own experience behind them?
A few years ago, the song "I Bruise Easily" used to make me laugh. "Well, stop it!" I'd say when the song came on. I don't believe feeling fragile and victimized is a healthy, adult state of mind. So why don't we help people learn to escape it instead of coddling it?
A few years ago, the song "I Bruise Easily" used to make me laugh. "Well, stop it!" I'd say when the song came on. I don't believe feeling fragile and victimized is a healthy, adult state of mind. So why don't we help people learn to escape it instead of coddling it?
38
With all due respect, people back in the day (60s, 70s) didn't have the luxury of safe spaces. I grew up mixed race, light skinned, Jewish, fat, with glasses and braces, in the hood. Oh, I was also gay, but I didn't know that yet. I was bullied frequently in elementary and middle school (by kids of various races) and sometimes beaten. My "safe space" was food and notebooks. I'm no longer fat but I still use writing as therapy. Somehow I found someone similar to myself and we've been together for over 15 years.
It's a little startling to see college students running to places to play with play doh and coloring books but if that is a form of therapy, then fine. However, that should not prevent debate from occurring on campus. People should know what the other side is thinking; that's why I keep track of what the Republicans are saying. How will these kids be able to deal with the work world? How will they react the first time a boss asks them to do something that they really don't want to do?
It's a little startling to see college students running to places to play with play doh and coloring books but if that is a form of therapy, then fine. However, that should not prevent debate from occurring on campus. People should know what the other side is thinking; that's why I keep track of what the Republicans are saying. How will these kids be able to deal with the work world? How will they react the first time a boss asks them to do something that they really don't want to do?
41
Wonderful comment! Thank you -
1
I find this trend of censorship on college campuses disturbing. Not so much because I am worried about the erosion of free speech (the emphasis on this right is often overwrought in my opinion), but because it will do very little to actually change the power relations that the censorship advocates would seek to overturn, ie any kind of privilege. I just don't see how any amount of safe space or censorship or privilege checking is going to result in the overturning of the patriarchy, an end to racism, or a more humane and less winner-take-all society.
Only focusing on oneself just does not and cannot have the same force for change as confronting problems head on and in concerted fashion.
Only focusing on oneself just does not and cannot have the same force for change as confronting problems head on and in concerted fashion.
26
What would America be like today if students of the 60's had been shielded from talk of racism or war because it discomfited them?
456
To me, Ms. Kaminer's observation that the students couldn't tell the difference between racist speech and speech about racist speech was telling. I think a huge part of the problem is that children aren't taught to think rationally or analytically. All around us, factual reports and "think pieces" have given way to emotional rants and spin. Everyone reacts emotionally to everything, and feels free to spew ugly epithets for any reason or no reason at all. The art of holding rational, analytical conversations that courageously explore uncomfortable territory will be lost entirely if we can't check all our sensitivities and passions at the door for even a little while.
559
It is only going to get worse. Conservatives and religious extremists continue to demand exclusion of material that does not fit their world view, that talks about other population groups and their struggles for equality, that even hints that the U.S. is anything other than 100% good and right. This is happening from kindergarten to college. We will soon be a nation of Stepford people. God help us!
2
Thinking rationally and analytically is not the same as being able to act rationally and thoughtfully when faced with a "challenging" situation.
1
The president of a college is supposed to be the grownup in the room.
2
This article reminds me of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. For the entire year, as instructed by the Ministry, the Defence Against the Darks Arts classes will be spent reading Mr. W. Slinkhard's Defensive Theory, which, as Dolores Umbridge reminds them, will be enough for their exam, which is not only theoretical but practical too. She emphasizes that there is nothing out their to harm children like them, that the theory will be enough to carry them through, if they study hard enough.
Dolores approved of censorship, whereas Dumbledore openly encouraged the utterance of Voldemort's name because he never feared him.
I have learned to openly pursue that which I fear, be it dissenting opinions or radical perceptions. Through this way I learned to filter out the nonsense by gathering all the information, but even though I am neutral for now, I still want to learn the truth. I won't allow my college learning experience to teach me that I am a mental patient to be placed in white, non-stimulating foam covered room for my own sake.
Dolores approved of censorship, whereas Dumbledore openly encouraged the utterance of Voldemort's name because he never feared him.
I have learned to openly pursue that which I fear, be it dissenting opinions or radical perceptions. Through this way I learned to filter out the nonsense by gathering all the information, but even though I am neutral for now, I still want to learn the truth. I won't allow my college learning experience to teach me that I am a mental patient to be placed in white, non-stimulating foam covered room for my own sake.
19
A safe space is a time and place where you agree to express your disagreements with others: not to walk out, not to ridicule or threaten. It is a place where you agree to hear how others disagree with you: not to listen for slip-ups or debater's points. In other words it is a place for honest exchange. We don't learn when we carefully wall ourselves off from disagreement, true. But we also don't learn in the rah-rah, flag-waving, snarkfests that pass as "debates."
15
That definition makes sense. Play-Doh . . .puppies . . . . . Not so much.
“I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs,” Ms. Hall said.
Give me a break. This is what college is supposed to be about. It is not supposed to about validating immature undergraduates' closely-held feelings and beliefs. It's about challenging them, making them feel uncomfortable in their belief systems.
Play doh? Videos of frolicking puppies (Uh-oh, somebody let the puppies frolick? Animal abuse!) I'm going to be sick.
Brown, by the way, is the campus where, some years ago, the undergraduates convicted an accused rapist before he was convicted in court and before he had a chance to face his accuser. When some TV news reporters visited the campus and asked why there was a lynch mob roaming the campus calling for the accused's expulsion or God knows what else, the brilliant and open-minded Brown undergraduates told them to "get off our campus!"
I like what Bruce said here in the comments section: "...comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Give me a break. This is what college is supposed to be about. It is not supposed to about validating immature undergraduates' closely-held feelings and beliefs. It's about challenging them, making them feel uncomfortable in their belief systems.
Play doh? Videos of frolicking puppies (Uh-oh, somebody let the puppies frolick? Animal abuse!) I'm going to be sick.
Brown, by the way, is the campus where, some years ago, the undergraduates convicted an accused rapist before he was convicted in court and before he had a chance to face his accuser. When some TV news reporters visited the campus and asked why there was a lynch mob roaming the campus calling for the accused's expulsion or God knows what else, the brilliant and open-minded Brown undergraduates told them to "get off our campus!"
I like what Bruce said here in the comments section: "...comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
32
It's like "The Shapiros battle insanity" out there -)
Go Shapiros !!!
Go Shapiros !!!
1
This article was scarier than the profile of the young guy from Minnesota who went to join ISIS. We are in deep trouble when college students are demanding safe emotional space instead of demanding to widen their understanding of life, others and the world. Perhaps colleges should start requiring fearlessness, emotional fortitude and a true intellectual curiosity, as evidenced by the ability to walk to school on one's own and travel on one's own. On the other hand, to improve campus safety, colleges could start by closing down the most unsafe space of all - college fraternities.
57
The core mission of the university is to provoke intellectually. Learning is always facing what is new and often troubling. I say this as a professor who actually tells his students that, if they remain in their comfort zones, they can expect one thing: nothing. To remove controversy from college because of safety concerns is like removing ladders from the house painting profession. You'll never get the job done.
317
A student at Reed College was barred from the interactive portions of a mandatory class because he disputed the oft quoted 1 in 5 college rape statistic.
Other students demanded that he be removed, and the professor obliged. The reason was that he made other students feel unsafe. When a discussion about statistics becomes a trigger that must be eliminated, along with the student, from a class you know that intellectual discourse is dying at colleges.
http://www.thefire.org/with-details-of-classroom-ban-at-reed-unclear-stu...
Other students demanded that he be removed, and the professor obliged. The reason was that he made other students feel unsafe. When a discussion about statistics becomes a trigger that must be eliminated, along with the student, from a class you know that intellectual discourse is dying at colleges.
http://www.thefire.org/with-details-of-classroom-ban-at-reed-unclear-stu...
43
"A student at Reed College was barred from the interactive portions of a mandatory class because he disputed the oft quoted 1 in 5 college rape statistic."
Eh. It's not really clear what happened as the FIRE article explains. It seem that the student was incredibly disruptive focusing his ire only on women and (as another article I have read on the subject makes clear) bringing up the "1 out of 5 myth" during almost every discussion even when it was irrelevant to the subject at hand. The students's online profile apparently stated that he was majoring in "annoying people." Reed, which is a private college, didn't need to worry about the First Amendment and thus focused on the fact that his comments were effecting people in the class. FIRE is seeking only that Reed make clear that the reason for his removal were his actions not his words which it appears may very well be the case.
Eh. It's not really clear what happened as the FIRE article explains. It seem that the student was incredibly disruptive focusing his ire only on women and (as another article I have read on the subject makes clear) bringing up the "1 out of 5 myth" during almost every discussion even when it was irrelevant to the subject at hand. The students's online profile apparently stated that he was majoring in "annoying people." Reed, which is a private college, didn't need to worry about the First Amendment and thus focused on the fact that his comments were effecting people in the class. FIRE is seeking only that Reed make clear that the reason for his removal were his actions not his words which it appears may very well be the case.
10
AJ, his actions *were* his words.
3
Aye yai yai. If there is any earthquake going on at this moment, it is probably just the founding fathers rolling in their graves.
I guess now we have to accept the escalating costs of higher education as justifiable because it by protects students from exposure to the unsettling great books of literature wherein the dilemmas of human life are vividly depicted. There are no really safe places in life . . . a fact that will soon be revealed to the safety-seekers after graduation. The search for black and white and bright lines is doomed in a world in which most everything is gray.
19
It's one thing to avoid a diversity of ideas and opinions if one is, in fact, practicing fearful avoidance after having been coddled all their life; it's another thing entirely if one has a history of having been sexually assaulted.
I agree entirely that higher education is the place to challenge, and critically reflect upon, our comfort zones. Unfortunately this article missed an important opportunity by not distinguishing between the over-indulged and survivors of sexual assault. I am a psychotherapist who works with individuals who have been raped, and I can tell you, being triggered for the trauma of having been forced to have sex is no indulgence.
I agree entirely that higher education is the place to challenge, and critically reflect upon, our comfort zones. Unfortunately this article missed an important opportunity by not distinguishing between the over-indulged and survivors of sexual assault. I am a psychotherapist who works with individuals who have been raped, and I can tell you, being triggered for the trauma of having been forced to have sex is no indulgence.
10
How do you know that the field of psychotherapy isn't actually helping to cause the exact form of "coddling" you mention? Maybe you are better than most therapists, but I work in mental health too and I personally have seen where a lot of psychotherapy these days encourages patients to see themselves as victims, over almost anything. For example - you use the word "survivor" to describe some of your patients, but you don't say what life-threatening ordeal they have experienced. Originally the term "survivor" was used to describe people who had made it out alive from Nazi concentration camps. The term is demeaned when it used in every day crime situations. But I'm not even sure many of these "sexual assaults" rise to the level of ordinary crime. Are you saying you have multiple patients who were victims of serious attempted homicides? I am skeptical. And for those people who are - we have a criminal justice system to address the issue.
To read the news these days, it seems like Americans, especially female college students, are becoming as delicate as Victorian era porcelain dolls. In that case maybe we need to revise our civil commitment laws - and let them spend some time in an actual dollhouse. I certainly don't think free speech should be curtailed.
To read the news these days, it seems like Americans, especially female college students, are becoming as delicate as Victorian era porcelain dolls. In that case maybe we need to revise our civil commitment laws - and let them spend some time in an actual dollhouse. I certainly don't think free speech should be curtailed.
3
As a traumatized woman in therapy, I found the ability to discuss anything on an intellectual level invaluable in my healing. It allowed me to confront difficult issues head on. It did not stop me from experiencing emotional catharsis, but it did let me understand what had happened to me, parse how that affected my own choices, and dive into addressing all the different aspects of my fears, pain, sorrow, and options. It also gave me the tools I needed to recognize triggered responses and not be overwhelmed.
Personal growth and intellectual growth both require courage. If your pain is too keen to bear a class or seminar discussion, seek therapy first and then return to college. I did, and went from a so-so student to graduate with full honors.
Personal growth and intellectual growth both require courage. If your pain is too keen to bear a class or seminar discussion, seek therapy first and then return to college. I did, and went from a so-so student to graduate with full honors.
63
Until recently, children who needed protection stayed home until ready to face the world. Several generations ago sensitive women who could not tolerate hearing "difficult" things stayed home until married, or forever. Women's rights were not gained by people whining about safety and retreating to safe havens. Do we really want to retreat to the polite hypocracy of the 40s and 50s.?
31
Apparently so, and this is happening in every quadrant of American life.
1
Mr. Shapiro is quoted as saying “I don’t see how you can have a therapeutic space that’s also an intellectual space,” As a practical matter, people who are seriously upset, for whatever reason, are not able to think clearly. They might gradually learn to function better in emotionally upsetting situations, and a safe place, or a range of relatively safer places, might play a role in that development. Our experience on Wikipedia has been that an open discussion about gender issues may be unproductive if the focus is skewed by emotional upset. Therefore a forum limited to women is being considered, see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/WikiProject_Women to give a safe space. Endorsement of a safe space must be distinguished from maintenance of open civil dialogue about potentially upsetting subjects but might be place to discuss how to participate in free wheeling dialogue effectively.
2
I am a professor at a medium-sized state university. All one has to do is talk to someone who works in positions that serve as points-of-contact with the real culprits - parents. Helicoptering has become more and more extreme. Kids who have been rescued from every possible difficult encounter are suddenly without a nearby landing pad so they are grouping together to protect themselves from any perceived slight. Several years ago we had a tenured sociology faculty member humiliated into retirement because she "created a threatening environment" when she spoke forcefully about a campus issue involving rape and student athletes - her words "threatening" two student athletes in her class - and compounded by her showing an award-winning, anti-porn documentary film housed in the university library ("The Price of Pleasure") who other students and their parents called "pornography." Faculty and staff and Deans are increasingly confronted by angry parents trying to rescue their kids from every threat from failing grades to their inability to operate a washing machine in the dorm.
65
School administrators, governments, would-be Internet regulators, and now-- surprise!-- American universities all trying to "shape" the First Amendment. And, when coupled with ignorance (try using the perfectly respectable word 'niggardly' in a sentence), intellectual rigor is thrown away in lieu of good feelings.
"Free speech" means free speech.
"Free speech" means free speech.
26
What are these "hot house flowers" going to do when they leave college for the real world?
31
NYHuguenot, those "hot house flowers" will wilt. Gotta grow up sometime. Sadly it doesnt seem that it will happen in college.
2
Become abused wives most likely: violent men seem to be able to sniff out the weak and lame as well as lions do the most vulnerable of its prey.
3
I guess we all need to just plain "grow up" at some point in life, and sooner is better than later because contrary to what today's current crop of college kids know, time passes quickly and pretty soon, you are beyond the years where anyone cares about your "sensibilities".
26
Sorry, but people never do grow up; hence, the proliferation of people bringing their "service" animals everywhere--planes, restaurants, no-pets-allowed hotels. These are not blind, deaf or physically disabled people, but people who need their animals for "emotional" support. Get a life, people and get a grip already!!
6
What's not addressed here is the very real fact that those who clamor for safe and unthreatening spaces, to be protected from challenging ideas are already, or are on the way to becoming, some of the most inconsiderate and mean spirited people themselves. When listening to another side of an argument becomes too difficult These people push away and reject ideas contrary to theirs In a most aggressive way. Wait until these future 'thinkers' become our bosses or elected leaders, it's not a safe vision!
3
People who are "traumatized" by words and ideas have no business getting higher education. The whole point of going to college is to expose you to a wide range of ideas many of which will be anathema to your most cherished beliefs. Hopefully this experience will make you reexamine and perhaps change your beliefs or at least ask yourself why what seems obvious to you is not obvious to 99 percent of humanity. This is why exchange programs and/or studying abroad is so important. Try to explain to a victim of war rape in the Balkans or Africa why an off comment by a male student is equal to her experience. Or perhaps try to convince a slender Chinese girl that fashion models are traumatic because they remind you of your excess weight. Or on a more serious note, look in the faces of survivors of Islamic terrorism and tell them that their existence makes you uncomfortable.
30
I'm not in favor of stifling debate on campus. But it seems to me the author and many of the writers here are misunderstanding the point of the "safe space." If the example of the student Emma Hall is typical, the "safe space" helped her listen to the debate -- to survive the "bombardment" of upsetting ideas, not shut it down. People create safe spaces for themselves in more informal ways all the time in order to cope with conflict. So what if in this case a campus task force helped out? There's a remarkable lack of empathy here for the challenges a rape survivor might face. I admire this young woman for finding a way to go into that lecture hall despite its potentially disturbing impact.
9
Day care.
2
How heartening it is to read these fine comments in support of real freedom of speech and debate on American universities campuses. It is as if an abscess has been burst. How has censorship and shutting down of debate been allowed to spread for so many years? Can we now, finally, get back to the business of educating the young in critical thinking and the confrontation of ideas?
19
I'm not in favor of stifling debate on campus. But it seems to me the author and many of the writers here are misunderstanding the point of the "safe space." If the example of the student Emma Hall is typical, the "safe space" helped her listen to the debate -- to survive the "bombardment" of upsetting ideas, not shut it down. People create safe spaces for themselves in more informal ways all the time in order to cope with conflict. So what if in this case a campus task force helped out? There's a remarkable lack of empathy here for the challenges a rape survivor might face. I admire this young woman for finding a way to go into that lecture hall despite its potentially disturbing impact.
9
Oh good lord. Is this for real and not an Onion piece? Are we raising a generation of people who get the vapors at thoughts they simply cannot stand and are, dare I say, the P word? This is not kindergarten or elementary school but real life and shielding students who are by all legal and reasonable means to be considered adults is beyond all sane rationale. What next? Raising a hand to brow, fanning oneself and saying , " I do declare I think I am getting the vapors, someone catch me"?
If you are that frightened of life, time to go back to mommy and daddy and leave university to the adults.
If you are that frightened of life, time to go back to mommy and daddy and leave university to the adults.
28
"I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly closely held beliefs," Ms. Hall said.
As a survivor of sexual assault I can understand there are certain "triggers"that Ms. Hall wishes to avoid, but surely she realizes that she will be exposed to many viewpoints and ideas throughout her life which she will find unpalatable, and that she will need to confront them directly and develop the intellectual strength to defend her own opinions if she wants to have any impact on the future. Everyone should feel physically safe on a university campus but upsetting topics like racism, sexism, sexual assault, religious intolerance etc. do not go away by refusing to discuss them, they only fester. A campus should be an environment for intellectual exploration, not a playroom for watching "videos of frolicking puppies".
exploration and testing
As a survivor of sexual assault I can understand there are certain "triggers"that Ms. Hall wishes to avoid, but surely she realizes that she will be exposed to many viewpoints and ideas throughout her life which she will find unpalatable, and that she will need to confront them directly and develop the intellectual strength to defend her own opinions if she wants to have any impact on the future. Everyone should feel physically safe on a university campus but upsetting topics like racism, sexism, sexual assault, religious intolerance etc. do not go away by refusing to discuss them, they only fester. A campus should be an environment for intellectual exploration, not a playroom for watching "videos of frolicking puppies".
exploration and testing
31
Wonderful piece.It describes a world in which the most powerful not only make the most money, but also prevent the discussion of important power differences both in cultural terms as in political terms. 'Controversy' the topic of that famous song by Prince, is too violent for a sterile generation.If the authorities in the University side with the suppressers of controversy, we should expect a huge wave of unrest and free speech. That coulod be delightful, or just bloody.
6
Puts a whole new spin on the words "bad parents". These kids were raised as sissies by parents who are ruled by irrational fear and twisted values. These values and that fear are spread mainly by advertisers, TV writers, and politicians, with the eager consent of the media. A pathological inability to differentiate between TV/movie fiction and reality, strengthened over several generations, doesn't help. Add political correctness and you have a new recipe for decadence.
18
Standing up against something that one deems unjust or wrong does not hinder academic discourse or intellectual discussions. In fact, it promotes them. It demonstrates the controversy first-hand. Students asking for trigger warnings and safe spaces do not want to suppress free speech or stop material from being covered in the classroom. They are asking for respect and consideration--conducive and necessary for productive conversation, especially when discussing a contentious subject. That has nothing to do with what material and subjects can or cannot be covered in a classroom. That's up to the discretion of the dean or professor.
When I carried a mattress across campus, I wanted my school's administrators to strictly enforce Title IX and implement certain rights for sexual assault survivors. Survivors deserve to feel safe and supported by their school. According to Schulevitz, I don't want to hear the other side of it. But, I do--I think the biggest problem is that we don't have these conversations inside a classroom. Because it's taboo to talk about in an academic setting, we are still arguing whether sexual assault is an issue, or whether rape culture exists.
What's happening with our classrooms is not the fault of student protestors claiming they feel unsafe, or students asking for trigger warnings or safe spaces. Mixing the two together is a great logical fallacy. The two are irrelevant.
When I carried a mattress across campus, I wanted my school's administrators to strictly enforce Title IX and implement certain rights for sexual assault survivors. Survivors deserve to feel safe and supported by their school. According to Schulevitz, I don't want to hear the other side of it. But, I do--I think the biggest problem is that we don't have these conversations inside a classroom. Because it's taboo to talk about in an academic setting, we are still arguing whether sexual assault is an issue, or whether rape culture exists.
What's happening with our classrooms is not the fault of student protestors claiming they feel unsafe, or students asking for trigger warnings or safe spaces. Mixing the two together is a great logical fallacy. The two are irrelevant.
94
It is when they put pressure on the administrators to cancel speakers, as they have in many instances
1
I'd be curious to know how Stephanie H. would lead a campus as President if her 4,000 or so students each got to decide on their own what constituted "feeling safe" and she was forced to spend every waking minute reacting to their increasingly narrow, unique, and depressingly self-centered and self-weakening demands.
4
Standing up is not the same as making someone shut up. Carrying a mattress to convey injustice is brave, and I truly do applaud you for doing so. But, as you said, students are not so delicate that they need protection from speech. In fact, trigger warnings are not helpful for people with traumatic experiences. Exposure to things "triggering" allows individuals to readjust and overcome what happened.
I would know. I lost a very dear friend during the overthrow of President Morsi. He was stabbed to death by a mob. I was devastated. But following the news from Egypt helped me recover. Speaking with his parents about him helped me recover.
So I would ask, if you wanted to hear "the other side," what do you object to in Ms. Schulevitz's article? Do you encounter people saying things that leaves you catatonic? The culture of free speech on college campuses smacks of old sexism, where women were infantilized and described as hysteric and unable to process or handle scary things. That they needed to be protected. Do you need someone to protect you from speech?
I would know. I lost a very dear friend during the overthrow of President Morsi. He was stabbed to death by a mob. I was devastated. But following the news from Egypt helped me recover. Speaking with his parents about him helped me recover.
So I would ask, if you wanted to hear "the other side," what do you object to in Ms. Schulevitz's article? Do you encounter people saying things that leaves you catatonic? The culture of free speech on college campuses smacks of old sexism, where women were infantilized and described as hysteric and unable to process or handle scary things. That they needed to be protected. Do you need someone to protect you from speech?
6
I draw a direct line to the phenomenon Ms Shulevitz writes of from the recent op-ed by Clemens Wergin, "The Case for Free-Range Parenting." "Safe spaces" and coddled campuses are exactly what our over-protective, ever-on-the-verge-of moral-panic society hath wrought.
American parents appear to me to be constantly terrified of harming their children themselves or not doing enough to protect them from external harms. Children naturally internalize these fears and project them back via increasingly absurd and draconian restrictions and censures on anything deemed "upsetting" or "unsafe." Thus, a student body's inherent RIGHT to be exposed to a marketplace of ideas is subverted by calls for "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" (as if the world that awaits them after graduation will afford them such courtesies).
I am so grateful for the victories that feminists, LGBTQQIAAP activists, and other activists for the rights of marginalized groups have won in the name of inclusion, full participation, and their right to be both seen and heard on campuses and elsewhere. And I fervently hope that the efforts by many to make campuses (and society in general) free of all violence, sexual and otherwise, will come to similar victories. But squelching dissent or seeking to protect oneself or others from sensitive topics or "triggering" language is not victory by any standard. Teaching and learning how to effectively cope with difficult things is. And it needs to start with the parents.
American parents appear to me to be constantly terrified of harming their children themselves or not doing enough to protect them from external harms. Children naturally internalize these fears and project them back via increasingly absurd and draconian restrictions and censures on anything deemed "upsetting" or "unsafe." Thus, a student body's inherent RIGHT to be exposed to a marketplace of ideas is subverted by calls for "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" (as if the world that awaits them after graduation will afford them such courtesies).
I am so grateful for the victories that feminists, LGBTQQIAAP activists, and other activists for the rights of marginalized groups have won in the name of inclusion, full participation, and their right to be both seen and heard on campuses and elsewhere. And I fervently hope that the efforts by many to make campuses (and society in general) free of all violence, sexual and otherwise, will come to similar victories. But squelching dissent or seeking to protect oneself or others from sensitive topics or "triggering" language is not victory by any standard. Teaching and learning how to effectively cope with difficult things is. And it needs to start with the parents.
32
Actually, of course, it's not "American parents" who are the responsible parties. It is the affluent, college-educated, privileged class of parents who seem to promote this approach to their little darlings. Most parents, and likely all "blue collar" parents have more sense. It's a shame college administrators are so intellectually febrile and supine.
4
Education at its best makes students strong so they will not be traumatized by speech or feel invalidated or be damaged by offensive opinions. A student who is never bombarded by a lot of view points that really go against their dearly held beliefs is not getting a good education. A University is not a "Safe Space".
"Safe Spaces" can enable student suffering from trauma, for example, to relax and explore and learn and rebuild their self confidence to deal with the world, which is not a safe space. "Safe Spaces" are by nature temporary.
"Safe Spaces" can enable student suffering from trauma, for example, to relax and explore and learn and rebuild their self confidence to deal with the world, which is not a safe space. "Safe Spaces" are by nature temporary.
9
I wonder if this has anything at all to do with the number of internet trolls out there spewing so much hatred. They're hard to control and their words can hurt deeply. Rather than desensitizing young people to hate speech, they make them overly sensitive to the possibility of hurt, so that in those places where it is possible to exercise some control over what is heard, they go overboard. When you're hurting, it's hard to distinguish a blow to your very sense of self from a legitimate challenge to your beliefs.
8
Quite possibly and it is parents and educators responsibility to enable their children to develop a sense of perspective, formerly known as a thicker skin.
9
Perhaps not just from trolls. Perhaps it also has something to do with the chaotic cacophonous unrestrained social media that these young adults grew up surrounded by. Maybe what they need is not so much safe places as quiet places that give them time to reflect and learn who they themselves are. The good thing is that there is a lot of support and sympathy for others but the incessant sense that everyone is a victim is so troubling.
89
Much of this hate speech versus free speech debate sounds indeed very similar to the political correctness discussions during the 90s. Only now it seems to be more about emotional than political correctness, which testifies to the fact that campus discourse has become even less intellectual than it has been. Not that therapeutic and intellectual have to be opposites - after all, psychology is still an intellectual field of study. Those unwilling to engage with these issues on a political, philosophical, or intellectual level, could at least try to elevate the discussion of safe spaces from a self-help / pop psychology level to something a bit more psychologically (and intellectually!) sophisticated...
9
These people are unreal.
If you truly have faith and believe in your ideas, then exposure to contrary ideas should only serve to strengthen that resolve, not send one literally retreating into a 5 year old shell where they can eat cookies and color in coloring books (outside the lines if they want, because if you criticize them for going out of the lines that might be triggering!!!!) and blow bubbles. Unreal. Good luck out in the real world, you're going to need it.
If you truly have faith and believe in your ideas, then exposure to contrary ideas should only serve to strengthen that resolve, not send one literally retreating into a 5 year old shell where they can eat cookies and color in coloring books (outside the lines if they want, because if you criticize them for going out of the lines that might be triggering!!!!) and blow bubbles. Unreal. Good luck out in the real world, you're going to need it.
37
I take the author's overall point: students shouldn't be encouraged to avoid IDEAS that upset them, whether those students are victims of sexual assault (the author's favorite target?), soldiers who've returned from the absolute trauma of battle, or fundmentalist Christians or Muslims. But whether and to what extent these students should be able to avoid upsetting EXPERIENCES is a different matter, even if the difference is blurred by graphic images, debate performances, and so forth. For instance, traumatized soldiers shouldn't be able to avoid reading texts about war, but creating sitting and living spaces on campus where they can escape the sounds of fighter jets just seems humane. So, I take the overall point, but wish desperately that the author had been more reflective about its limits. The tone is... more than off-putting.
13
I am offended by the idea that an entire campus needs to be a "safe space" (whatever that is).
In the real world, people jostle each other. People say things that others might find disagreeabke. People might even disagree. (Oh, HORRORS)
We hold elections to sort out such disagrrements. If the world has to be a "safe space" what room is there for having a New idea, one that might "shake things up"?
In the real world, people jostle each other. People say things that others might find disagreeabke. People might even disagree. (Oh, HORRORS)
We hold elections to sort out such disagrrements. If the world has to be a "safe space" what room is there for having a New idea, one that might "shake things up"?
28
I was never abused as a child. I have never been raped or tortured. None of my family or friends has been lost to violence. I cannot imagine how such experiences would affect my ability to take part in a public debate.
I don't know if "safe spaces" are the answer. However, it seems to me that we teach something important when we act considerately towards people who have been hurt. They weren't just "asking for it". Telling them to "just suck it up" is not a moral example to feel proud of.
I don't know if "safe spaces" are the answer. However, it seems to me that we teach something important when we act considerately towards people who have been hurt. They weren't just "asking for it". Telling them to "just suck it up" is not a moral example to feel proud of.
14
Just something to consider: If everyone is a victim, and all victims deserve special treatment then aren't we encouraging people to perceive themselves as victims when they really are not? If someone sees someone else receiving special treatment for having a certain "status" does that in turn create a need in them to attain that status? How then to determine whether someone truly is a victim or not? Should we then create a scale of victimization and then reward those victims per how high they rate on that scale? This really is a social sickness, how we tie ourselves in knots over these issues and and then completely cheapen the experiences of REAL victims. And this response was not to diminish the legitimate concerns of REAL victims, as some might perceive it to be.
1
I'm a 40 year old woman who was raped at college when I was 17-and I'm profoundly offended by the idea that it would have been beneficial for me to be protected from hearing certain language and ideas. That's an absurd and dangerous presumption and an impossible way to live; I daresay it's an impossible way to heal. We can't be protected from the world and we shouldn't demand that our schools hold a proverbial hand over our ears & eyes. Contrary speech, controversial ideas, & novels & memoirs recounting trauma shouldn't be confused with hate speech or speech that incites violence. We still have men in political power who believe they need to protect women from "profane" language and ideas, many of which are used to describe our own bodies. We women have fought for decades to fully take part in academic, political, and public lives. We should be extremely wary of demoting ourselves back to "the sensitive female" who cannot handle adult talk & needs smelling salts after hearing "shocking" language. I sympathize with anyone who's suffered trauma but the answer to healing isn't to demand that the world treat us as small children needing protection from bad words. If you find yourself being triggered by the novel being discussed in class or a speaker or a class assignment, please seek the help of a mental health professional so that you can look forward to fully engaging with the world again.
1162
Thank you for posting your comments.
7
well stated- it is vital to protect challenging class content as well as other forums on university campuses where difficult, complex ideas can be debated and students can learn to make an informed defense of a position, learn the positions of other to better understand others around them, and perhaps even have their own minds changed or expanded.
8
I do not know why you are “profoundly offended.” I’m a trauma victims just as you are.I was not "profoundly offended.”I wasn’t offended in the least. “I daresay
that it’s an impossible way to heal.”
Why don’t you speak to a mental health professional who actually hast training in treating victims of rape and other extreme traumas? Mental health professionals who treat trauma victims do advocate that victims avoid trauma triggers at certain times. Many of those those who have been victims of violent sexual assault are being treated by mental health professionals,who ,depending on the individual case, may well advise them to avoid trauma triggers . This does not mean they are being advise to avoid engaging fully with the world. It means they are being advised to avoid being triggered and re-traumatized while they are being treated for acute trauma.
I am not advocation that schools change their curriculum in any way. Can you at least consider that it might not be in the best interests for a student who has been raped on Monday,to read a memoir of rape that Friday?
that it’s an impossible way to heal.”
Why don’t you speak to a mental health professional who actually hast training in treating victims of rape and other extreme traumas? Mental health professionals who treat trauma victims do advocate that victims avoid trauma triggers at certain times. Many of those those who have been victims of violent sexual assault are being treated by mental health professionals,who ,depending on the individual case, may well advise them to avoid trauma triggers . This does not mean they are being advise to avoid engaging fully with the world. It means they are being advised to avoid being triggered and re-traumatized while they are being treated for acute trauma.
I am not advocation that schools change their curriculum in any way. Can you at least consider that it might not be in the best interests for a student who has been raped on Monday,to read a memoir of rape that Friday?
University is where we are supposed to embrace scary ideas. To apprehend all that is not known and to learn how to come to terms with it. What on earth is education if not an introduction to new and scary ideas? If I stay with ideas I came with, why come?
80
This article is SO on target. As a college lecturer of advanced age who has only recently come to the profession, I am astounded at how sensitive my students are, how babied they have been, how much I have to watch what I say lest an offended student go crying to my department chair, how many students get special consideration for tests, for classroom attendance, for everything. They may not have a sliver of a chance once they graduate, because NOBODY will cut them these kinds of breaks once they're in the "real world." It also makes me realize I am not long for this profession.
339
We need a universal draft. Helicopter parents have made a generation of students who are emotionally still in diapers. This puts the nation at risk.
10
Their narcissistic parents infantilized and emotionally crippled them because they want them to return home and live in the basement forever.
It is the ultimate form of control, concealed in the mantle of parental love.
Despicable.
It is the ultimate form of control, concealed in the mantle of parental love.
Despicable.
7
Not only as a college lecturer, educated person and just an adult, you (as well as I and everyone) ought to ask who is benefiting from this ever growing numbers of "issues" and "sensitivities" and "debates" and "initiatives to address them"?
I believe that a great part of all these "issues" and victimhood and "rights" of any imaginable sorts are intentionally planted, financed, supported by the Ruling Class (and subsequently carried on by often naive enablers) in order to distract the lower 99% from the most critical fact of the past decades: Ever faster concentration of money and power in the top 1% or 0.1%.
Divide and impera, all over again.
That in this case college student body, on top of that now supposedly inj 62% female, succumbs to such sophisticated propaganda and manipulation which bombards all of us from almost every direction (all this costs a lot of money and power that all those "victims" certainly do not have enough of) is kind of logical and it is precisely the goal the Ruling Class had in the first place.
While we, on the lower decks, are vigorously arguing over any "issue" which Ruling Class and its media etc. throw at us, they enjoy increasingly luxurious ride on the upper deck.
I believe that a great part of all these "issues" and victimhood and "rights" of any imaginable sorts are intentionally planted, financed, supported by the Ruling Class (and subsequently carried on by often naive enablers) in order to distract the lower 99% from the most critical fact of the past decades: Ever faster concentration of money and power in the top 1% or 0.1%.
Divide and impera, all over again.
That in this case college student body, on top of that now supposedly inj 62% female, succumbs to such sophisticated propaganda and manipulation which bombards all of us from almost every direction (all this costs a lot of money and power that all those "victims" certainly do not have enough of) is kind of logical and it is precisely the goal the Ruling Class had in the first place.
While we, on the lower decks, are vigorously arguing over any "issue" which Ruling Class and its media etc. throw at us, they enjoy increasingly luxurious ride on the upper deck.
1
Yes, there is an anti-Free Speech vibe that emanates from safe spaces created pursuant to discussions of controversial topics on campuses. It has its origin in the same thought that seeks to protest and shout down speakers espousing unpopular views on campuses, often resulting in their being disinvited. Look, I am not a fan of homophobes, racists, etc. But this fear of speech which justifies shutting down opposing views is antithetical to the founding principles of our nation and to academic freedom. The safe spaces themselves are not a danger, but the fear of speech that is so prevalent is a grave danger. Colleges would do well to be vigilant in protecting the free exchange of ideas as well as they seek to protect those that might be negatively affected by what they might hear.
263
Only in your last few paragraphs do you encroach on something aside from the rape problems, which are real, on campus. Freedom of speech is not only under attack to outside speakers, but within classrooms, by professors who openly take one side on contemporary world problems and issues, but intimidate students if they express a different opinion, or present facts that counter the Professor's personal beliefs. To the point that a student may also see a worse final grade. Plus, pro-Israel students are not infrequently targeted with anti-Semitic hate speech, or even physically assaulted, by members of such movements like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), not only when counter demonstrating, but simply walking the campus. Indeed, there is more than one area of fear poisoning allegedly "liberal" college life today.
26
Would you contend that it is a safer America for those who might criticize Israel than it is for those who defend it? Open discussion of just one nation's policies and actions has been suppressed more than any other political topic: Israelis can criticize Israel; *Americans* *cannot* without being accused of being anti-Jewish (often mislabeled anti-Semitic but Palestinians are Semitic peoples, too) and then being associated, at least for argument's sake by those who would repress opponents of Israel, with mid-20th-century central Europeans. Look at the effort to scrub discussion of Israel out of the post-9-11 public dialogue or the response to Mearsheimer and Walt's book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. There is no place on campus or in public fora such as the Times for open debate about Israel's policies.
5
The idea that Students for Justice in Palestine would attack Jewish students or harass them is absurd and is basically libelous. If you want to talk about physical assaults, the better example is Israel's bombing campaign that killed scores of Palestinian women and children. Perhaps you have not noticed that many Jews in Israel are themselves critical of Netanyahu's position on Palestine. It seems that "anti-semitism" is spreading. As far as college professors go, the tired right-wing accusation of bias in the classroom is an uninformed claim that insults the integrity of others. Having taught at a major university for three decades, you have no idea what you are talking about.
3
Right on schedule. Pro-Israel students are "not infrequently" assaulted. Physically. And nobody bats an eye. Must be rough, such rampant victimization.
2
There is a difference between providing comfort to those who need it and preventing any speech that someone somewhere might find uncomfortable. Change is uncomfortable, in order for change to happen you must leave your comfort zone. Staying completely in your comfort zone is called stagnation.
My self, I like the philosophy of a speaker I heard at an MLK Breakfast several years ago. She said "I am here to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable."
My self, I like the philosophy of a speaker I heard at an MLK Breakfast several years ago. She said "I am here to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable."
98
It is interesting that the higher education system, while doing everything it can to promote "diversity," has largely suppressed the most important form of diversity: diversity of thought.
370
Nicely put!
4
It was always so. Trinity College, Dublin, was founded by Eliz I, to train young men for the ministry. Jonathan Swift went there at age 14. He became a great thinker, by thousands of others did not,
Not only as a refugee from communism, I have to say: Bingo!
But at the same time, the PC army, unknowingly actually doing work for the Ruling Top 1% which intentionally plants all kinds of "issues" to have emotional "debates" in order to distract us from the real and much more serious issue and problem: Even faster concentration of wealth and power in the top 0.1% or 1%.
But at the same time, the PC army, unknowingly actually doing work for the Ruling Top 1% which intentionally plants all kinds of "issues" to have emotional "debates" in order to distract us from the real and much more serious issue and problem: Even faster concentration of wealth and power in the top 0.1% or 1%.
3
What a sad and dumb world when a children never gets to grow up. You can be 60 years old, but act like you're 7. This new generation of young adults are a shame. I was so delighted to hear mr. Shapiro dead on observation about this culture of overprotection: it was a breath of fresh air, in the middle of all this infatilization. If you don't like what you will hear at a lecture, just don't go. Stay at your dorm. The idea of a safe place to hear ideas at a university is utterly ridiculous. You are atcollege to feel new things,think differently,and that includes hearing discussions about things you don't agree with. That is how the world works. A bunch of people thinking the opposite of what you believe. News flash, ridiculous inventers of "safe place" - there is now such a thing as a safe place in the world! You need to learn how to handle this reality. Everyone needs to toughen up! Stop being overly sensitive. Try to deal with things instead of hiding. It is imperative to have a balance between fighting hate speech and freedom of expression. But this does nott envolve in any way the "safe space". Let's treat everyone like adults, not crying babies who needs their stuffed animals. All I asl is little dignity, please.
120
Mark Twain, who famously said that "I became educated in spite of my schooling", must be shaking his head in sadness. These days, the overprogrammed, overcocooned kids who spend their time in the pursuit of arbitrary, highly overpriced credentials seem to know about as much about the real world out there as I know how to speak Martian. University must be no fun for anyone with their own ideas and the willingness to express them. After all, there's no way to guarantee that somebody, somewhere, won't be offended. Rather, it's a pretty good bet that someone WILL be. And if that happens, the 'offender's' fate will likely be the academic equivalent of what Robespierre & Co Un-Ltd did to suspected nobles and, soon after, anyone they disagreed with. Actually, that might not be the best metaphor. If this is how universities are being run these days, it sounds like all too many of the students and even faculty already GOT that treatment. Truly pitiful.
32
A safe space insinuates that other spaces on campus are less safe because they ARE- they uphold an oppressive power structure that marginalizes a number of students, including students of color, students who identify as LGBTQ, and disabled students. Many Muslim students did not attend El Rhazoui’s event because it deepened the trauma many students hold from incidents of Islamophobia. This was not a safe space for these students. Their trauma is not something to “get over”. Education’s purpose is to give EVERY student the opportunity to engage with difference and process their own worldview. When students cannot attend an event because they feel unsafe physically and mentally this prohibits that type of learning. The reason we need safe spaces on campuses is because the existing spaces do not give all students equal opportunity to engage and learn from difference. Language contributes to marginalization. The words “crazy” and “retarded” are so common and demean a disabled student’s identity. Microaggressions cause the same harm to many students. A safe space allows marginalized students to have a voice and find strength to participate in the learning we want in college and more importantly to encourage fellow students to be welcoming and inclusive even if their worldviews clash. Safe space isn’t just therapy (therapy isn’t bad). More students utilize counseling services today because we don’t pay enough attention to making education a meaningful experience for everyone.
6
Everyone's physical safety should be ensured. But where is the problem with Muslims hearing that El Rhazoui's life is being threatened - and those of her colleagues were taken - by Muslims? It's the truth! It seems to me that safe spaces shut down the very airing of differences of point of view you claim to promote.
4
Buck up. You are part of the problem. No safe spaces when I went to college. We did fine, and I'm guessing, are far better able to handle "feelings" than this generation of students.
I have nothing but scorn for this mindset and implementation. The end result of overprotective, helicoptering parents, creating a permanently infantalized generation. I fear for my nation, my culture.
I have nothing but scorn for this mindset and implementation. The end result of overprotective, helicoptering parents, creating a permanently infantalized generation. I fear for my nation, my culture.
4
I hope ME, that those are merely your initials and not your world view because I am sorry to inform you that there are no safe spaces. You will soon be entering a world in which the President of the United States (seriously) is routinely mocked, attacked, and disrespected by those who oppose him. You will soon be entering a world of political, religious, and social polarization where people may not bother even acknowledging your feelings, let alone respecting or protecting them. That's the reality of life in 2015. You don;t have to like it but you will have to deal with it.
4
Remaining injured seems a weird prescription for recovery ... like treating bodily damage by avoiding physical therapy. Are the Holocaust Museum, the Viet Nam Memorial or South Africa's reconciliation hearings "triggering mechanisms", too unsettling and upsetting for the victims? Or are they powerful and important means to mitigate the harm and protect future victims?
114
Good point. Actually, reality is sometimes unsettling. It is cruel, sadistic and unfair. Let people see the effects of these attitudes on policy as in the Holocaust museum, Underground Railroad exhibits, etc., etc. I think many people really do not want to admit that certain types of ugliness exists so they ban the exhibits. By not seeing it they can feel comfortable doing nothing to change things. Be unsettled at times. It is good for you.
2
I'm a survivor of the Holocaust and felt very uncomfortable in the Holocaust Museum in Washington and Yad Vashem in Israel and will not visit again.I went to visit Auschwitz but got only as far as Krakow .Should we curtail discussing a topic because it triggers pain?Never!! Brown university students had an opportunity to engage the former commissioner of NYPD in a discussion about stop and frisk and permitted a vocal few to silence him.At Brandeis a critic of the treatment of women by some Islamic States was not allowed to speak.The speaker herself brought up in Islam but was accused of Islamophobia.I'm Charlie .We need to treasure free speech and avoid hurting others feeling by being insensitive.
3
The Vietnam War Memorial is a respectful, sacred, healing space. Veterans can go there to cry and remember. We don't have such a space for survivors of rape. Maybe we need a memorial in Washington for them.
It is the epitome of political correctness to confuse individual therapeutic needs with proscriptive social mores.
I'm reminded of nothing more than the reaction around the Charlie Hebdo murders themselves, ironically. There were those who argued that the speech shouldn't be defended because it was rude, offensive, or otherwise unpalatable, not understanding that it's precisely *because* of the prescriptive attempts to shut them down (with bullets) that the offensiveness of the speech is irrelevant.
We can discuss being kind and nice to one another (the "choice to be compassionate," as it were) *AFTER* you put down the gun. Or, in America, after you cease the cooling effect of anti-speech lawsuit papers -- accusations of hate crimes, racism, legally-actionable misogyny, or God knows what else.
I'm reminded of nothing more than the reaction around the Charlie Hebdo murders themselves, ironically. There were those who argued that the speech shouldn't be defended because it was rude, offensive, or otherwise unpalatable, not understanding that it's precisely *because* of the prescriptive attempts to shut them down (with bullets) that the offensiveness of the speech is irrelevant.
We can discuss being kind and nice to one another (the "choice to be compassionate," as it were) *AFTER* you put down the gun. Or, in America, after you cease the cooling effect of anti-speech lawsuit papers -- accusations of hate crimes, racism, legally-actionable misogyny, or God knows what else.
26
These stories are becoming more common -- but what's scary is that you USED to -- even in Rush Limbaugh's day -- be able to make a fairly eloquent argument for the marketplace of ideas, and you'd be met with a conflicted opponent -- but one that was able to recognize the potential competing interests and understand the importance of protected speech. Now, however, when you question the supporters of safe spaces and authentic speech policing (you can't say X because you don't have this experience of authenticity) -- you are met with an echo chamber of social media shaming for your racism, sexism and love for sucking the blood from newborns, or *worse yet* cogent arguments from people who have been given both a platform and tenure to speak out about against the First Amendment, free speech, free thought and liberty. It is not uncommon to actually hear "unAmerican" ideas -- where the bravado gathered from social/identity-fixated leftists' successes with decentralized media and advancements like gay marriage are actually engendering them to abandon liberalism in favor of authoritarianism. The fact that they cannot see that this is more frightening -- as if there is literally no memory of the importance of free speech. Some of them are so young as to be oblivious and some are too mad to remember to know better. It's like dealing with the religious right all over again. Disclosure: I am a liberal who votes for Democrats -- so I'm no right-winger.
33
I am in strong agreement with this essay. PC over-concern and over-control are infantalizing. There is a huge difference between inciting violence through hate speech and quoting from a literary text -- a college student is supposed to be able to discern that. This approach of 'don't offend anyone' is way too close to 'evolution is a theory' in my book.
Is this perhaps a cohort of kids who have never felt particularly confident, connected, and safe? From daycare to electronic babysitters to supervised everything? Maybe one of the benefits of a 'free range childhood' is that a kid learns how to deal with reality, and picks up useful lessons like "sticks and stones."
I am a trauma survivor, and I understand triggers. However, we cannot scrub the world of reminders of bad things that happen to us. We have to learn how to bear the things that have happened with equanimity, and thereby reduce their power over our present lives.
Is this perhaps a cohort of kids who have never felt particularly confident, connected, and safe? From daycare to electronic babysitters to supervised everything? Maybe one of the benefits of a 'free range childhood' is that a kid learns how to deal with reality, and picks up useful lessons like "sticks and stones."
I am a trauma survivor, and I understand triggers. However, we cannot scrub the world of reminders of bad things that happen to us. We have to learn how to bear the things that have happened with equanimity, and thereby reduce their power over our present lives.
833
No, the lesson you learn from not being overly shielded is "fight back."
4
Please don't lump in daycare here. I can't see how that is at all relevant. In fact, I would hypothesize that the stay at homes would be more likely to be living in a cocoon of assumed safety...
than the daycare kid who meets all different kinds of folks...kids and adults
than the daycare kid who meets all different kinds of folks...kids and adults
1
Brilliant! Love the term "free-range childhood."
3
It is not only in college that the USA has become a country of victims. One can only hope that the pendulum will swing back.
18
Not a country of victims--of people demanding "rights" in opposition to the rights of others. Right to force women to conform, right to carry etc.
3
Along with such worthy mottos as "Knowledge Is Power" colleges should emblazon over their doorways "The World Does Not Revolve Around You."
189
Best piece I have read, today.
3
Or "Abandon self-delusion all who enter here."
5
The "safe zones" themselves are a good idea, because there are people who have been traumatized and need protection. I think the solution is to establish "safe zones," but provide resources for people to receive counseling to help them cope with their problems and also learn empathy and how to comfort other people. The goal is to transcend the trauma, not hide from it forever.
However, there are also too many people perceive themselves as victims, and they often dull themselves from perceiving other people's suffering. I fear that the colleges are merely contributing to the growing narcissism in that generation.
However, there are also too many people perceive themselves as victims, and they often dull themselves from perceiving other people's suffering. I fear that the colleges are merely contributing to the growing narcissism in that generation.
18
The fear of vigorous and even offending opinions is really astounding. Where, if not at university, should students experience and even welcome open intellectual argument? The very term implies differing opinions, I hardly need to argue with those already on my side. There seems to be a culture of victimization, which in the end trivializes the very real trauma suffered by some. The antidote is not to limit and prevent controversial debates, but to encourage them, seek them, to convince, to win the argument. The example of the Muslim student and the Charlie Hebro journalist is almost grotesque and defies belief. A point could be made that a university that shields its students from controversy fails at one of its most important task, namely to foster the search for truth, for intellectual curiosity, for open and controversial debates of cultural, philosophical and political concepts. None of which can be found in an echo chamber of the like-minded, in a climate of political correctness and where every argument is seen a mortal threat to the emotional well being of those on the other side of the argument.
646
"A point could be made that a university that shields its students from controversy fails at one of its most important task, namely to foster the search for truth, for intellectual curiosity, for open and controversial debates of cultural, philosophical and political concepts."
That should be the ONLY task of the university. Universities exist for pass down knowledge. They should not be in the business of playing the role of parent and legal authority. How much of the recent rising tuition costs are due to increasing administrative budgets for all manner of supposed social needs? Todays college students are viewed as little babies and the university is the day care center.
That should be the ONLY task of the university. Universities exist for pass down knowledge. They should not be in the business of playing the role of parent and legal authority. How much of the recent rising tuition costs are due to increasing administrative budgets for all manner of supposed social needs? Todays college students are viewed as little babies and the university is the day care center.
3
I don't understand people who are against the idea of safe spaces, think trigger warnings are for silly sensitive people, and think sexist and racial microaggressions are just part of living in the world. Why shouldn't we try to make the world a better place? If people can be nicer and more compassionate, and listen to those who have been victims--why is this a bad thing?
Moreover, people who have experienced the level of trauma that make trigger warnings and safe spaces necessary are more than aware that the world is a dangerous place. It's not "hiding from scary ideas", it's not wanting to give ignorant people who think rape culture (or sexism or racism etc.) isn't real a platform. It's not "worrying whether acts of speech or pieces of writing may put them in emotional peril," it's knowing that hearing someone say "women need to be more careful with who they go out with" is part of why they got raped in the first place--that ideas like this are still circulating is just one indication of rape culture's prevalence. I hope this is making sense.
My main point is just that it's so easy to be compassionate, and even if something doesn't affect me, I listen to those it does affect and adjust my behavior accordingly. Why is that so hard for everyone else to do?
Moreover, people who have experienced the level of trauma that make trigger warnings and safe spaces necessary are more than aware that the world is a dangerous place. It's not "hiding from scary ideas", it's not wanting to give ignorant people who think rape culture (or sexism or racism etc.) isn't real a platform. It's not "worrying whether acts of speech or pieces of writing may put them in emotional peril," it's knowing that hearing someone say "women need to be more careful with who they go out with" is part of why they got raped in the first place--that ideas like this are still circulating is just one indication of rape culture's prevalence. I hope this is making sense.
My main point is just that it's so easy to be compassionate, and even if something doesn't affect me, I listen to those it does affect and adjust my behavior accordingly. Why is that so hard for everyone else to do?
5
So you're saying that it's not about hiding from "dangerous" ideas, it's about wanting to censor them. And that makes it better?
11
Women do need to be careful who they go out with! It's called exercising mature judgment and taking responsibility for your life! Who else should have that responsibility!
16
But, when people say "women need to be more careful," etc.....how is any progress made when the very people who oppose that idea simply run away to a safe space? What are these traumatized people going to do in the workplace when they overhear someone say something with which they disagree? Crawl under their desks?
I've suffered trauma, myself. I know how it feels to be triggered. I also know that life does not revolve around my emotional baggage, and that you learn nothing (and help no one) if you hide from everything that makes you uncomfortable.
I've suffered trauma, myself. I know how it feels to be triggered. I also know that life does not revolve around my emotional baggage, and that you learn nothing (and help no one) if you hide from everything that makes you uncomfortable.
24
This phenomenon appears to be most pervasive at elite schools, populated primarily by students who grew up with much privilege. It has not infected the working class kids at the non-elite college where I teach--at least not yet.
60
I am sick and tired of this infantilization of college students. If they can't cope with "scary ideas", they should stay home and watch Romper Room.,
80
The play-doh and coloring books reference was startling. And I watch the show "Girls" and wonder how old they really are -- in their 20s or ten years younger. One character shows up at a job interview and turns down a great job and at another is very inappropriately sexual. This is supposed to be humorous? It is pathetic. Oh and let's not talk about Lena Dunham's character being a stalking substitute teacher who texts a girl 10 years younger as if they were "best friends forever."
7
Brown might not be one, but there are plenty of existing schools which do an excellent job of "keep[ing students] from being 'bombarded' by discomfiting or distressing viewpoints."
They are called madrassas. But perhaps the young sheltered women being discussed here have never heard of them.
An attention deficit epidemic. A Prozac epidemic. A cheating epidemic. A campus rape epidemic, which I readily acknowledge and am concerned about. All of which rage unabated. And now this.
Makes you long for earlier times. We are so lost these days.
They are called madrassas. But perhaps the young sheltered women being discussed here have never heard of them.
An attention deficit epidemic. A Prozac epidemic. A cheating epidemic. A campus rape epidemic, which I readily acknowledge and am concerned about. All of which rage unabated. And now this.
Makes you long for earlier times. We are so lost these days.
34
Unfortunately this article merely scratches the surface of the consequences of student hyper-sensitivity and over-protection. The practice includes student reactions to curriculum design, course offerings, course materials, teaching styles, bathroom entrance labels, and faculty meetings, among other things.
I'm not sure how it all started. I have a suspicion it's an outgrowth of well-intended rights awareness in opposition to exclusionary good-old boy College practices, along with nanny-state mandates and school Administrators fearful of vengeful lawyers & bad press.
This is not to slam needed civil rights imperatives. It's only to speculate how too many students (and faculty) are turning a positive right into a negative value. What is lost in the College experience is an appreciation for the core liberty of free speech, press, knowledge, and discussion without censorship, intimidation and shaming.
If we cannot stand up for this liberty in the College setting then a fundamental value of the American character will truly be lost.
I'm not sure how it all started. I have a suspicion it's an outgrowth of well-intended rights awareness in opposition to exclusionary good-old boy College practices, along with nanny-state mandates and school Administrators fearful of vengeful lawyers & bad press.
This is not to slam needed civil rights imperatives. It's only to speculate how too many students (and faculty) are turning a positive right into a negative value. What is lost in the College experience is an appreciation for the core liberty of free speech, press, knowledge, and discussion without censorship, intimidation and shaming.
If we cannot stand up for this liberty in the College setting then a fundamental value of the American character will truly be lost.
66
To preface: I am a student at Oberlin College, one of the most notoriously liberal schools in the country.
While it's true that the idea of victimization is a prevalent part of my college's culture (I can't speak towards anyone else's experience), I do not believe that it hinders academic integrity to the extent to which Ms. Shulevitz claims. As she points out, debate is occasionally brought to a halt by the phrase "As a *insert victimized group here* I feel," which makes one uncomfortable responding (how can you?).
However, I do believe that Shulevitz blows the idea of safe spaces out of proportion. Having a safe space for a minority group, either on a small scale (like in the sexual harassment example) or on a larger one (for example, Oberlin's third-world co-op is a safe space for students of color), does not dull the members of the group. It does provide them with a place to be with other people who understand their situation more intimately, so that they can feel supported.
That said, I agree that programming should be upheld, so that others can attend and learn. Some months ago, Jeffrey Sachs came to speak at Oberlin. Some students stood up and walked out in protest, but the majority of us stayed to listen to his response. The generalization made in this article is, in my opinion, therefore unfounded in the reality of the situation. The students of today are just as academically-minded as in the past; they are just more sensitive to the needs of the less privileged.
While it's true that the idea of victimization is a prevalent part of my college's culture (I can't speak towards anyone else's experience), I do not believe that it hinders academic integrity to the extent to which Ms. Shulevitz claims. As she points out, debate is occasionally brought to a halt by the phrase "As a *insert victimized group here* I feel," which makes one uncomfortable responding (how can you?).
However, I do believe that Shulevitz blows the idea of safe spaces out of proportion. Having a safe space for a minority group, either on a small scale (like in the sexual harassment example) or on a larger one (for example, Oberlin's third-world co-op is a safe space for students of color), does not dull the members of the group. It does provide them with a place to be with other people who understand their situation more intimately, so that they can feel supported.
That said, I agree that programming should be upheld, so that others can attend and learn. Some months ago, Jeffrey Sachs came to speak at Oberlin. Some students stood up and walked out in protest, but the majority of us stayed to listen to his response. The generalization made in this article is, in my opinion, therefore unfounded in the reality of the situation. The students of today are just as academically-minded as in the past; they are just more sensitive to the needs of the less privileged.
192
Past college generations were not less sensitive to the needs of the less privileged. But they didn't stay in their cocoons. They went out and confronted a hostile world. If back and white students and others had not been willing to be in physically and emotionally unsafe spaces along with other equally brave souls, the civil rights movement never would have happened.
28
I visited Oberlin with my son a few years ago when he was deciding on a college. As we toured the campus, the tour guide repeatedly pointed out residence halls and stated "this house is for (insert ethnic, sexual, or gender identity here) and their allies." The message the institution was sending it its students seemed pretty clear, and it had two parts: 1) your ethnic/sexual/gender identity is the most important part of your personhood and 2) despite this bucolic setting, this campus is in fact a very dangerous place for you, so you are going to need allies against all those forces threatening you. Is this the message the institution really wants to send to its prospective and incoming students?
46
Andrea, I write as someone who marched in Berkeley during the free speech days, back in the era of black power rising and when feminism was called women's liberation. I never burned a bra or a draft card, but my sentiments were wholeheartedly with the 1960s liberation movements.
Since that time universities have permitted the development of numerous "safe" spaces and departments that tend to segregate diverse groups (women's studies, black studies, queer studies) where the sour fruits of victimhood are endlessly chewed upon.
On your campus there's a third world coop where people of color can feel safe. My goodness, I know this happened by a process of self-segregation, but back in my day, folks rallied to be included in the first world coop and no one would have dared relegate them to their own corner. A third world coop for people of color? Sounds like the back of the bus to me, even if "freely" embraced.
Since that time universities have permitted the development of numerous "safe" spaces and departments that tend to segregate diverse groups (women's studies, black studies, queer studies) where the sour fruits of victimhood are endlessly chewed upon.
On your campus there's a third world coop where people of color can feel safe. My goodness, I know this happened by a process of self-segregation, but back in my day, folks rallied to be included in the first world coop and no one would have dared relegate them to their own corner. A third world coop for people of color? Sounds like the back of the bus to me, even if "freely" embraced.
33
Almost 40 years ago, a posh public high school in the Chicago suburbs decided that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer would be deleted from the school's list of required reading because it used words that were offensive to African Americans, a word I won't use. Of course, protesting parents and sympathetic teachers were attempting to provide a generalized "safe place" for the largely caucasian student body to be spared not only the incisive, acerbic cultural insights of perhaps America's finest literary humorist, but withdrew from students the opportunity to struggle with a culture infected by slavery, racism, and vicious apartheid. These students, born to comfort and affluence, were precisely those who should have engaged in the struggle to dissect Twain's depictions of racism in the 19th century.
Good manners and speech sensitive to others define a civilized society. But "safe places" seem to whitewash the world we live in and deprive us of self-examination. Whether appointed or self-anointed in the form of angry protesters, those who decide that we must be spared the difficult process of facing the offensive and the controversial, deny to each of us the opportunity to struggle with and challenge our own orthodoxies.
It's a delusion to believe that "safe places" free of controversial ideas and speech that offends us, where we never have to face the crudity of our past or our present, can ever exist anyway. We can never be free of ourselves or our past.
Good manners and speech sensitive to others define a civilized society. But "safe places" seem to whitewash the world we live in and deprive us of self-examination. Whether appointed or self-anointed in the form of angry protesters, those who decide that we must be spared the difficult process of facing the offensive and the controversial, deny to each of us the opportunity to struggle with and challenge our own orthodoxies.
It's a delusion to believe that "safe places" free of controversial ideas and speech that offends us, where we never have to face the crudity of our past or our present, can ever exist anyway. We can never be free of ourselves or our past.
39
Amen! The antidote to speech you don't like is speech you DO like. At what point does controversy slink off because some sensitive soul feels s/he may be injured (as well as challenged and informed)?
15
Reading things like this makes me embarrassed for my generation. People who can't handle hearing something they disagree with are not people who are capable of making the world a better, safer place. They're people who stifle discussion and create a culture of fear where anyone who has an opinion in the minority is afraid that speaking honestly about their own experiences and perceptions will draw public rebuke and attacks on social media.
316
And while we're at it, let's get rid of of the concept of "micro-aggressions." If something is so small as to be micro, you should just brush it off and go about your business.
If you don't want to face anything unpleasant, retreat to your bedroom, avoid all newspapers, and stay off the internet.
If you don't want to face anything unpleasant, retreat to your bedroom, avoid all newspapers, and stay off the internet.
330
"If you don't want to face anything unpleasant, retreat to your bedroom, avoid all newspapers, and stay off the internet."
That may be my plan for the upcoming presidential campaign. The very thought of what is to come make me long for a Safe Place.
That may be my plan for the upcoming presidential campaign. The very thought of what is to come make me long for a Safe Place.
6
The "micro-aggression" seems to be a darling a new weapon in vocabulary of activists on the far left. They certainly put a lot of hope in making this term into daily vocabulary and into any debate.
Frankly, I feel that they have already accomplished that. With that, how can anyone, any "decent", nice, good person not to stand up against "aggression" even "micro-aggression"? Fact accompli!
Frankly, I feel that they have already accomplished that. With that, how can anyone, any "decent", nice, good person not to stand up against "aggression" even "micro-aggression"? Fact accompli!
I think you misunderstand just a little bit. The people promoting these "safe spaces" don't want *everyone* to be shielded from ideas they disagree with. They only want people who think approved thoughts to be shielded. But if you are an unbeliever, if you do not worship at the alter of political correctness, if you express an idea that is contrary to the approved conventional wisdom, then you will be relentlessly bombarded with ridicule, criticism, and macroagressions, until you learn the wisdom of keeping your mouth shut and nodding your head at the appropriate times. No safe space on campus for you!
87
Yes, JohnB hits the nail on its proverbial head. Double standards erase whatever good might have been achieved by "safe spaces," censorship and any other coercive ways of attaining politically correct goals. I know this not only from extensive reading but also from personal experience. I've been an academic for thirty years.
9
I find this trend most distressing. These kids do not belong in any institution of higher learning. Such delicate little flowers need to be protected from ever hearing a discouraging word. Admissions officers at our various colleges and universities should ask kids to whom they are considering making an offer of admission that, if they are looking for a safe cocoon they should look elsewhere. They should make them sign a contract that will state that they should expect to be challenged and that they should welcome being challenged. That is, after all, what education is all about.
It seems that this is a problem affection upper middle class kids. White upper middle class kids. Maybe it would do everyone some good if the top 250 colleges and universities admitted asian immigrants from Lowell, MA, Hispanic kids from San Antonio, TX, black kids from Chicagoland, and poor white kids from Staten Island. Let the upper middle class daughters Greenwich, CT stay in their daddies mansions and concentrate on making their cats happy.
It seems that this is a problem affection upper middle class kids. White upper middle class kids. Maybe it would do everyone some good if the top 250 colleges and universities admitted asian immigrants from Lowell, MA, Hispanic kids from San Antonio, TX, black kids from Chicagoland, and poor white kids from Staten Island. Let the upper middle class daughters Greenwich, CT stay in their daddies mansions and concentrate on making their cats happy.
58
One of the ironies of this situation is that college students at institutions such as Brown were some of the most over-protected children in the history of the world. Growing up in suburbs with their bike helmets, gluten-free bread, anti-bullying crusades, and parents who knew of nearly their every move nearly 99% of the time, these students believe that the world should conform to fit their needs. The universities aren't doing much to counter that idea.
Moreover, in society we tend to live more in cocooned areas surrounded by people who agree with us. We are less and less tolerant of anyone proffering an idea that contrasts in any way with our established world view - which, as kids are being taught, is inviolate if not sacred. And the response to anyone who contradicts that view is to shut them down. That is dangerous, and I will not give a dime to any institution that shuts discussion down.
Moreover, in society we tend to live more in cocooned areas surrounded by people who agree with us. We are less and less tolerant of anyone proffering an idea that contrasts in any way with our established world view - which, as kids are being taught, is inviolate if not sacred. And the response to anyone who contradicts that view is to shut them down. That is dangerous, and I will not give a dime to any institution that shuts discussion down.
189
I was a thin-skinned, overly sensitive college student once. Now, thank goodness, I’ve grown older and wiser and more tolerant of differing viewpoints. To show just how old I am, I’m going to throw down the term mollycoddling. We’re doing these kids no favors handholding them to death.
Are college administrators hesitant to be firmer on taking a stance along the lines of “we support academic freedom, free speech, and hearing from a plurality of viewpoints” because the blowback from parents is worse than it used to be?
Just wondering what can be done to help our young adults achieve adulthood before they’re pushing 40.
Are college administrators hesitant to be firmer on taking a stance along the lines of “we support academic freedom, free speech, and hearing from a plurality of viewpoints” because the blowback from parents is worse than it used to be?
Just wondering what can be done to help our young adults achieve adulthood before they’re pushing 40.
39
I have a panic disorder. I understand what it's like to live a life where you're in fear of that which triggers a panic attack. It's not something I would wish upon anyone else. Panic attacks are scary. Having said that, there comes a point where you cannot shield yourself from your triggers any longer and you have no choice to face them, because there are no more places to hide from it. I do understand what that fear feels like. But you can either allow your trauma to define you as a person or you can take control of your own anxiety and fear and this trauma becomes another event in your life that, while unfortunate, doesn't define you or own you as a person. Life is much better when you own your anxiety instead of it owning you. It's not easy to own it, but it's worth it in the end.
130
Best read I've experienced in the NY Times in many years. And I consider the NY Times to be the best publication in America.
13
I'm so far on the Political Left that I'd like to leave this quasi-fascist country, but this Political Correctness (PC) stuff is where I part ways with my liberals friends. PC drives me insane and actually causes me momentary psychotic ideas to vote Republican; make no mistake this is PC. I expect this kind of nonsense from the conservatives, but when liberals cannot police their own reason and ideology from nonsense, I start to lose it.
The world is a hell hole! Welcome to reality. Trying to personalize your very own disinfection program for it isn't possible, insidiously optimistic and dangerous, nor desirable. But unfortunately, the younger lambs are taught that it is possible and that life is wonderful, when all the great minds have shown this premise to be false. When I read about the Play-Doh, I almost put my head in the oven. Please stop this nonsense.
"If we were to conduct the most hardened and calloused optimist through hospitals, infirmaries, operating theaters, through prisons, torture-chambers, and slave-hovels, over battlefields and to places of execution; if we were to open to him all the dark abodes of misery, where it shuns the gaze of cold curiosity, and finally were to allow him to glance into the dungeons of Ugolino where prisoners starved to death, he too would certainly see in the end what kind of world is this meilleur des mondes possible. For whence did Dante get the material for his hell, if not from this actual world of ours?"
Schopenhauer
The world is a hell hole! Welcome to reality. Trying to personalize your very own disinfection program for it isn't possible, insidiously optimistic and dangerous, nor desirable. But unfortunately, the younger lambs are taught that it is possible and that life is wonderful, when all the great minds have shown this premise to be false. When I read about the Play-Doh, I almost put my head in the oven. Please stop this nonsense.
"If we were to conduct the most hardened and calloused optimist through hospitals, infirmaries, operating theaters, through prisons, torture-chambers, and slave-hovels, over battlefields and to places of execution; if we were to open to him all the dark abodes of misery, where it shuns the gaze of cold curiosity, and finally were to allow him to glance into the dungeons of Ugolino where prisoners starved to death, he too would certainly see in the end what kind of world is this meilleur des mondes possible. For whence did Dante get the material for his hell, if not from this actual world of ours?"
Schopenhauer
271
I admit, Prometheus, that I had the same reaction to the Play-Doh (can one but despair?).
Is Brown offering students a return to kindergarten?
p.
Is Brown offering students a return to kindergarten?
p.
12
Prometheus,
I think our opinions on most topics would be polar opposites but we would agree on the nature of life and the world.
Its hard, its nasty, it requires struggle, and won't be handed to you. In the end though, you can make it wonderful with your own hard work.
I think our opinions on most topics would be polar opposites but we would agree on the nature of life and the world.
Its hard, its nasty, it requires struggle, and won't be handed to you. In the end though, you can make it wonderful with your own hard work.
3
Just curious, which country do you think is better?
1
Sexual Assault Task Forces at universities and colleges? At universities in the America of the 1950s "date rape" wasn't a given. Granted, everyone drank booze to excess on dates in our town and gown cities. We got fairly plastered on gin and tropicana in the orange cartons, even on the trains traveling up and down the east coast from our colleges to our homes at holidays, but it was the rare woman who had to leave college because she was up the spout. Pregnant. And we weren't hiding from scary ideas; the 1950s were the last gasp of the pre 1960s revolution in American culture. Pre-Woodstock. pre-pot in brownies, Mom in the kitchen in an apron - Father knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet. We didn't hide from "scary ideas" - we welcomed the freedom and independence of leaving home, leaving families. Korea was the war going on, and Vietnam and Algerie-Francaise were France's foreign wars, not ours. Sad and bad that American women at colleges now are afraid of being assaulted. In our skewed American culture we are permitted to own and carry guns (more's the pity). A gun in a minaudiere or fanny-pack is a way to insure freedom of one's body from assault. The ethos of "safe space" ("self-infantilization") for today's college women is bizarre. Dissent is part of American dialogue. Saying no means no, not maybe. Discussing anything is not beyond the Pale today (as it was in the 50s, when we kept mum as mummies).
19
It's very startling to read about all of this now. I'm in my 50s. Recently I read that there are young people who have no idea that there was an AIDS crisis! As recently as 20 years ago, AIDS was a death sentence. Of course to today's teens, 9/11 may be ancient history. So they have to learn it.
How can one teach history if college students are going to leave the room and interact with play-doh and coloring books?
Dissenting speech should be welcomed on the air, in newspapers and on campuses. You should always know what the other side is thinking.
How can one teach history if college students are going to leave the room and interact with play-doh and coloring books?
Dissenting speech should be welcomed on the air, in newspapers and on campuses. You should always know what the other side is thinking.
3
What I find curious, and unaddressed, is that "safe space" language is being used as a cloak for politically controversial topics and views. For example, the proposed boycott of SodaStream at Harvard was couched as the products being offensive to Palestinian students' sensibilities. People seem to grasp, or at least think they grasp, that they cannot ban or suppress politically inconvenient viewpoints, but believe that sensitivity is sufficient grounds to do so.
Moreover, by objecting so frequently, the lines become increasingly blurred. Campuses are not, in the name of free speech, required to provide a platform for all noxious views: if the campus declined to allow a speech by David Irving, controversy would be far more limited. But all controversial subjects have the potential to cause offense. We cannot prevent offense to all. In attempting to minimize doing so, we avoid robust debate about how open we must be to hearing such views.
Moreover, by objecting so frequently, the lines become increasingly blurred. Campuses are not, in the name of free speech, required to provide a platform for all noxious views: if the campus declined to allow a speech by David Irving, controversy would be far more limited. But all controversial subjects have the potential to cause offense. We cannot prevent offense to all. In attempting to minimize doing so, we avoid robust debate about how open we must be to hearing such views.
15
Of course the student knew that Ms. Rhazoui was in an unsafe position. The student wished to silence her views and picked what she felt was the most effective stick to use. If the view that zero criticism of Islam is permissible can't be enforced through fear and murder, University codes of non-threatening speech will do as an alternative. The very religious seem to believe that they have a right to vigorously espouse the wonders of their religion to one and all, but that no criticism is to be permitted. Thus we have Evangelicals, who believe it their duty to convert the rest of us, complaining that there is a war on Christians and a war on Christmas.
Colleges should not permit hate speech, but the present restrictions are silly. If somebody from Charlie Hegbo is going to speak, the subject of the talk should not be a mystery. Those who fear they may be traumatized by listening to the talk should simply stay away. The motive of this particular student clearly was not to protect her delicate psyche, it was to prevent the other members of the University community from hearing the speaker.
Colleges should not permit hate speech, but the present restrictions are silly. If somebody from Charlie Hegbo is going to speak, the subject of the talk should not be a mystery. Those who fear they may be traumatized by listening to the talk should simply stay away. The motive of this particular student clearly was not to protect her delicate psyche, it was to prevent the other members of the University community from hearing the speaker.
270
Who decides what constitutes 'hate speech'?
3
As an undergraduate, I taught a supplemental course at a public university in California. In one lecture, we briefly mentioned -- for a mere two minutes -- how a famous British author had been sexually traumatized in his youth at a boarding school and how this event had negatively impacted his literary output. Despite the brevity of this discussion, a female student demanded we censor this important point in future lectures.
Strikingly, these demands for censorship weren't limited to the subject of rape. As an undergraduate, I was appalled when female students loudly demanded many aspects of history and/or literature be censored in order to appease their delicate sensibilities.
I recall being in a U.S. History course in which a white female student insisted the professor must omit the horrors of antebellum slavery in the Deep South. She wanted to learn about slavery, yes, but she wanted all disturbing facts omitted, including corporal punishments by slave-masters. In short, she wanted a pleasant retelling of history on par with a Disney Channel movie.
These demands by female undergraduates seem to be growing on many campuses. It is one thing to request that certain topics be handled with a certain delicacy, but quite another to demand their wholesale deletion from the curriculum. Burying your head in the sand and pretending that unsavory aspects of history didn’t happen seems to be the antithesis of historical analysis and scientific inquiry.
Strikingly, these demands for censorship weren't limited to the subject of rape. As an undergraduate, I was appalled when female students loudly demanded many aspects of history and/or literature be censored in order to appease their delicate sensibilities.
I recall being in a U.S. History course in which a white female student insisted the professor must omit the horrors of antebellum slavery in the Deep South. She wanted to learn about slavery, yes, but she wanted all disturbing facts omitted, including corporal punishments by slave-masters. In short, she wanted a pleasant retelling of history on par with a Disney Channel movie.
These demands by female undergraduates seem to be growing on many campuses. It is one thing to request that certain topics be handled with a certain delicacy, but quite another to demand their wholesale deletion from the curriculum. Burying your head in the sand and pretending that unsavory aspects of history didn’t happen seems to be the antithesis of historical analysis and scientific inquiry.
366
It's not just young females with this "head in the sand" approach to life. Christians don't want to hear about Christian bigotry, Jews don't want to hear about Israeli aggression, Muslims don't want to hear about Islamic terrorists. Same for Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, and liberals. This is what is making people "stupid" and impossible to talk to.
15
There is nothing new about this. In a course on costume history for theater, my professor, Barbara Anderson at CMU showed slides of portraits that had been altered. The most dramatic were codpieces that had been removed. For the uninitiated, these are stuffed padding to make a male's member larger. a formal detail of dress for men of the 15th and 16th Centuries. I will never forget that "now you see them now you don't" lecture. I incorporate it into my syllabus not just as an illustration of how morals affect dress but an object lesson on the reliabiity of sources, even ones that may appear to be primary. The point is where emotion is high, it is even MORE essential to look below the surface, not less, let alone run away from it. That only allows dangerous ideas to grow unchecked to where they can really hurt you.
5
The problem is not in the demands, which are obviously narcissistic to the extreme, it is that universities give in to those demands.
9
Ms. Shulevitz writes, "Once you designate some spaces as safe, you imply that the rest are unsafe. It follows that they should be made safer." This is a non-sequitur. It conflates the need for safe spaces to exist with the need for colleges to enforce rules of respectful discourse. Safe spaces are places for retreat and regeneration from which a person emerges ready to do battle once more. A college classroom is an appropriate place to do battle, so long as the conversation is free from abuse and derogatory terms. Ms. Shulevitz has taken a handful of people who don't get this and falsely implied that colleges are trying to turn all campus locations into safe spaces.
14
Aha, those "derogaory terms" -- which speech commissar is in charge of defining those?
10
There is no 'falsely implied' move by colleges to infantilize the student experience. One can read every day another example of an institution willing to condone or even promote the victim mentality promulgated by self-proclaimed progressive activists and desired by politicians seeking power. Adults, a term more and more out of favor, develop a strong moral center accompanied by an inquisitive mind and a thick skin. The rough and tumble of life will not step aside to let you pass.
7
According to jfwlucy, a "college classroom is an appropriate place to do battle, so long as the conversation is free from abuse and derogatory terms." Has this person ever taken a course in women's studies? I have. On countless occasions, we "learned" that men are the ultimate cause of all evil and suffering. Variations notwithstanding, the underlying premise of many books and articles was the conspiracy theory of history, which relied on the belief that all of human history has been a titanic conspiracy of men to oppress women. Our teacher never said so directly, of course, but the theories that she taught and the books that she assigned did so either explicitly or implicitly. And I have no reason to believe that the situation has changed since then. On the contrary, the dubious notion of a "rape culture" has been revived since Susan Brownmiller popularized it. Not many male students have the courage to protest about their emotional distress in classes of this kind--and not only in women's studies. Those who do complain about open attacks on their identity, let alone "micro-aggressions," face vicious ridicule. And if the result is neurotic self-hatred, so what? Take it like a man.
1
I am an undergraduate student at Baruch College and before that I was an undergraduate at Pace University and I had witness this behavior at both institutions. I understand that one has the right to be offended but I never understood why being offended by someone's opinion gives you the privilege to shutdown speech. This lack of conviction that I find in my fellow undergraduates has contributed to my dismay of higher education. I wanted an education because I wanted to explore more new ideas. I did not decide to pursue an education to reinforce my ideals but to pursue knowledge and explore different viewpoints.
Personally I think that the problem is that many undergraduate lack actual real world experience. The author of this piece alluded to the same cause in her article. Perhaps we need to encourage more young people to gain more experience with work experience, volunteer service, travel or even military service like I did when I served as a Marine.
Then again this is just my opinion.
Personally I think that the problem is that many undergraduate lack actual real world experience. The author of this piece alluded to the same cause in her article. Perhaps we need to encourage more young people to gain more experience with work experience, volunteer service, travel or even military service like I did when I served as a Marine.
Then again this is just my opinion.
185
I believe you have uncovered the expression of power behind the desire to shut other people up. When I was young 'shut up' was one of the most offensive things you could say to someone, especially in grade school.
I am unaware of safe spaces and the like, although you could say that owning a home in a white suburb amounts to the same thing, but I am aware of the pervasive lying, stealing, killing, incarcerating, and cruelty in American life. Thanks Republicans. Free speech is your greatest enemy.
Anyone who reads Mark Twain or Herman Melville is in for a big surprise. The unvarnished truth about the past is even more hideous than what we have today.
I am unaware of safe spaces and the like, although you could say that owning a home in a white suburb amounts to the same thing, but I am aware of the pervasive lying, stealing, killing, incarcerating, and cruelty in American life. Thanks Republicans. Free speech is your greatest enemy.
Anyone who reads Mark Twain or Herman Melville is in for a big surprise. The unvarnished truth about the past is even more hideous than what we have today.
9
Indeed, perhaps it would be useful for undergraduates to work for a year or two in the real world (and few things are better than serving in the military to give you an idea of the real world, not to mention the benefits and discomforts of an authoritarian sociaist regime -- I speak as a veteran) BEFORE attending a university.
9
Nothing gave me the inspiration for finishing my degree than working in the real world and seeing the kinds of jobs, even in an office environment, that were available to those who lacked the alphabet letters after their name.
1
Seventy four years ago, Americans the same age as these college students were called upon to fight a war for the very existence of our country and way of life. The enemy combatants from Germany and Japan did not provide "safe spaces" for those young people. With some trepidation I wonder what will happen if the rising generation of today is ever challenged with a task fraught with comparable peril.
54
The oh-so-twee will rely upon the rest of us to protect them, just as we did in
WWII. Of course, in those days there were more of us and fewer of them.
WWII. Of course, in those days there were more of us and fewer of them.
6
Excellent point. At age 19 my late father was a German POW captured in the Battle of the Bulge. He spent fours months in a camp and came out with hepatitis and weighed 125 pounds. His parents did not know for several months whether he was alive. He only spoke of this experience in his eighties and only then in a very limited manner.
My late father in law at the same age went to the Pacific. He too rarely spoke of the experience -- the one thing he did mention was that one of his jobs was to check the bodies of the enemy after a battle to make sure they were dead, and if not, to shoot them.
Both men experienced depression in late years, but carried on and did what needed to be done. I hope that this puts things in perspective.
My late father in law at the same age went to the Pacific. He too rarely spoke of the experience -- the one thing he did mention was that one of his jobs was to check the bodies of the enemy after a battle to make sure they were dead, and if not, to shoot them.
Both men experienced depression in late years, but carried on and did what needed to be done. I hope that this puts things in perspective.
9
The problem unfortunately is that while college is supposed to teach critical thinking for the most part it doesn't.
In my mind at least critical thinking is about trying to understand both sides of the argument and then choosing the best side -- while being able to argue the opposite.
Instead the thing that gets taught is "This is how (some version of) the establishment thinks. These are arguments against it." Which is closer to indoctrination. And saves the messiness of people actually disagreeing with you.
As a result you have people like Ex Mayor Bloomberg giving a commencement address where he says there was more free thought under the gulag system then the American educational system. Or Condoleezza Rice turning down speaking engagements for the same reason.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing at all wrong with contemporary progressive liberalism. But to me, there is something profoundly wrong with treating the ideas of progressive liberalism as holy gospel which cannot be questioned and that any criticism is unthinkable hate speech.
In my mind at least critical thinking is about trying to understand both sides of the argument and then choosing the best side -- while being able to argue the opposite.
Instead the thing that gets taught is "This is how (some version of) the establishment thinks. These are arguments against it." Which is closer to indoctrination. And saves the messiness of people actually disagreeing with you.
As a result you have people like Ex Mayor Bloomberg giving a commencement address where he says there was more free thought under the gulag system then the American educational system. Or Condoleezza Rice turning down speaking engagements for the same reason.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing at all wrong with contemporary progressive liberalism. But to me, there is something profoundly wrong with treating the ideas of progressive liberalism as holy gospel which cannot be questioned and that any criticism is unthinkable hate speech.
47
"In my mind at least critical thinking is about trying to understand both sides of the argument and then choosing the best side -- while being able to argue the opposite."
This what debate class was like in High School. My son and I would play this game. He or I would say something and the other would pick apart his opinion. My daughter in law listened to us one day arguing something trivial and couldn't understand why we were arguing it. I told her that the subject wasn't the point of the argument. It was the ability to argue that mattered. The subject might be something that mattered little to either of us and no subject was taboo. We're both analytic. Maybe that's why he's an engineer today and I ran my own business for 30 years. We don't miss the small seemingly unimportant points.
This what debate class was like in High School. My son and I would play this game. He or I would say something and the other would pick apart his opinion. My daughter in law listened to us one day arguing something trivial and couldn't understand why we were arguing it. I told her that the subject wasn't the point of the argument. It was the ability to argue that mattered. The subject might be something that mattered little to either of us and no subject was taboo. We're both analytic. Maybe that's why he's an engineer today and I ran my own business for 30 years. We don't miss the small seemingly unimportant points.
2
And then, some colleges don't care much about critical thinking anyway. They care about credentials, marketable skills, etc. Yes, many upper echelon schools (are supposed to) teach thinking, but more average schools are popular because they help kids "get jobs,"
1
But will they keep the jobs when it's discovered they lack critical thinking skills?
2
Twenty years ago, a student could stand back and observe the political debate from a safe distance.
Today, that is much, much harder to do. Sometimes even a completely silent, inactive person gets dragged into a traumatic, emotional, political firestorm.
It used to be said, "If you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen." Today, it is sometimes impossible to avoid getting dragged into the kitchen. Privacy and safety are elusive. Hence, the changes.
Today, that is much, much harder to do. Sometimes even a completely silent, inactive person gets dragged into a traumatic, emotional, political firestorm.
It used to be said, "If you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen." Today, it is sometimes impossible to avoid getting dragged into the kitchen. Privacy and safety are elusive. Hence, the changes.
8
Nonsense! You don't have to get into arguments unless you choose to. And actually you learn a lot more with your mouth shut than you do with your mouth open.
16
Phooey. The Grand Wizard of the KKK, David Duke, was something of a fixture at LSU in the days of freedom of speech on campus, often in a Nazi uniform. The student body had fresh memories of the sometimes violent desegregation process which they had endured. I am sure there were holocaust survivors on faculty. Plenty of people had reasons to be triggered but understood that their emotional burdens were their own responsibility.
Duke presented his ideas freely and often. Some argued. Most ignored him. Many pointedly doing so while strolling by at arms length as if he didn't exist.
His ideas lost. A free society moved forward as free societies do as long as they don't lose faith in that freedom.
Duke presented his ideas freely and often. Some argued. Most ignored him. Many pointedly doing so while strolling by at arms length as if he didn't exist.
His ideas lost. A free society moved forward as free societies do as long as they don't lose faith in that freedom.
6
Part of the reason for this societal change is that we have a much greater understanding of the effects of trauma and take it more seriously than we once did. The main focus centered, in the case of rape and sexual assault, on arresting/capturing and imprisoning the assailant, often accompanied by a subtle (and sometimes, not so subtle) shaming of the victim. How the violation psychologically affected the victim, and in more than a few cases permanently so, was glossed over or even ignored. The subject was too icky to examine any further.
The idea that she could experience a horrific flashback in a seemingly unrelated moment was utterly foreign to earlier generations. Even today, a wiser, more sophisticated time, you still have some people who question whether PTSD, in any context, is a real thing. Some still say, earnestly if ignorantly, "It's all in your mind." As if that makes it any easier?!?
Katherine Byron and people like her make for easy targets. They are caricatured as feminazis who want to shut down debate and never hear an opposing view. In truth, they are people with enormous, caring hearts who fully grasp that unless you have been raped or sexually assaulted you stand on very shaky ground if you question the impact of "triggering" comments and/or acts. To deny that a rape culture exists is not to deny that rapes occur, but that is not what these creators of safe spaces are alleging that people like Wendy McElroy are saying in their work and public appearances.
The idea that she could experience a horrific flashback in a seemingly unrelated moment was utterly foreign to earlier generations. Even today, a wiser, more sophisticated time, you still have some people who question whether PTSD, in any context, is a real thing. Some still say, earnestly if ignorantly, "It's all in your mind." As if that makes it any easier?!?
Katherine Byron and people like her make for easy targets. They are caricatured as feminazis who want to shut down debate and never hear an opposing view. In truth, they are people with enormous, caring hearts who fully grasp that unless you have been raped or sexually assaulted you stand on very shaky ground if you question the impact of "triggering" comments and/or acts. To deny that a rape culture exists is not to deny that rapes occur, but that is not what these creators of safe spaces are alleging that people like Wendy McElroy are saying in their work and public appearances.
9
"What ever does not kill me makes me stronger". Hiding from the horrible leaves you weak and a victim. That's no way to go through life.
19
It's not clear to me that today is a "wiser, more sophisticated time." Part of wisdom and sophistication is dealing with a wide variety of voices.
2
If you are suffering PTSD to such a degree that anything could set you off at any time then you need to be in therapy, not college. That is not what college is for. I'm sending my kids for an education, not as therapy aids. Sorry this sounds brusque, I understand suffering, but there is a time and place for everything. College may not be the best place at that time.
7
Rape victims are not hiding from "scary ideas." They know, from personal experience, what rape is like.
"Safe spaces" do not stop other people from espousing unpopular or offensive opinions. Surely those who hold unpopular views about sexual assault should be strong enough to deal with the fact that their opinions are distressing to rape victims in their audience. It is absurd to simultaneously suggest that rape victims must be strong enough to listen to speech they find traumatizing, but those who hold unpopular opinions about women or sexual assault must be protected from the knowledge that some people find their opinions offensive or hurtful.
"Safe spaces" do not stop other people from espousing unpopular or offensive opinions. Surely those who hold unpopular views about sexual assault should be strong enough to deal with the fact that their opinions are distressing to rape victims in their audience. It is absurd to simultaneously suggest that rape victims must be strong enough to listen to speech they find traumatizing, but those who hold unpopular opinions about women or sexual assault must be protected from the knowledge that some people find their opinions offensive or hurtful.
48
Actually it is not absurd at all. It is called free speech and it is what America is about. If a person is suffering from post traumatic stress from abuse they should continue to relieve therapy. The goal is tenacity, not being horded away from all scary things ideas and feelings.
Human's when suffering life changing horror are thrown into a terrible "outer darkness" it is thier own duty to pull themselves out. Only through tenacity and theraputic sobbing is that possible.
This is hard to hear, but it is what works.
Human's when suffering life changing horror are thrown into a terrible "outer darkness" it is thier own duty to pull themselves out. Only through tenacity and theraputic sobbing is that possible.
This is hard to hear, but it is what works.
27
Rape victims absolutely need safe spaces for them to recover. However, many people who have not been traumatized are demanding the same type of protection, and that risks trivializing the real pain that the victims experience.
21
I think it's very different to argue that those with unpopular (and potentially hurtful) opinions "must be protected" from negative feedback and that those with said opinions shouldn't be allowed to express them. As an undergraduate, I very much value the concept of a safe space at my university, especially as it pertains to survivors of horrific and/or deeply personal events. At the same time, though, I think it's worth considering that those who hold maybe-hurtful opinions which might trigger survivors won't automatically about-face if their voice is shut down.
I think there's a time and a place for someone with an "unpopular" opinion to voice it, if only for other people to convince them that their views might be harmful. If the entire campus is a "safe space" like the one described in this article, there's nowhere for those people to be able to speak up and subsequently be convinced otherwise. As I see it, this op-ed is indeed arguing, something with which it seems as though you disagree, that some "safe spaces" do indeed stop some people from espousing unpopular opinions. I've run into quite a few of those places in my less-than-a-year on campus, and they do exist, oftentimes for the better. However, if we let that space take over the entire campus, as I've seen some people advocate for, we lose out on legitimate discussion, which in my opinion is the only thing that will change those "unpopular" opinions in the first place.
I think there's a time and a place for someone with an "unpopular" opinion to voice it, if only for other people to convince them that their views might be harmful. If the entire campus is a "safe space" like the one described in this article, there's nowhere for those people to be able to speak up and subsequently be convinced otherwise. As I see it, this op-ed is indeed arguing, something with which it seems as though you disagree, that some "safe spaces" do indeed stop some people from espousing unpopular opinions. I've run into quite a few of those places in my less-than-a-year on campus, and they do exist, oftentimes for the better. However, if we let that space take over the entire campus, as I've seen some people advocate for, we lose out on legitimate discussion, which in my opinion is the only thing that will change those "unpopular" opinions in the first place.
12
'Perhaps overprogrammed children engineered to the specifications of college admissions offices no longer experience the risks and challenges that breed maturity,”'
It is ironic that this article is published in the same week as one addressing the push back against 'free-range parenting,' which was known when I was a kid simply as normal parenting.
Perhaps the colleges should put a note on their diplomas indicating that the grad is prepared for life as long as it is not upsetting or troubling.
It is ironic that this article is published in the same week as one addressing the push back against 'free-range parenting,' which was known when I was a kid simply as normal parenting.
Perhaps the colleges should put a note on their diplomas indicating that the grad is prepared for life as long as it is not upsetting or troubling.
491
"Perhaps the colleges should put a note on their diplomas indicating that the grad is prepared for life as long as it is not upsetting or troubling. "
this probably also explains why the rate of suicides is higher for the under 30 population than the over. So many (but far from all) have been spoiled and believe that life is a bed of roses. When that does not turn out to be the case (i.e., the real world) they prove, as a result, unable to handle. Hence this "education" ends up not serving the student but destroying him or her.
this probably also explains why the rate of suicides is higher for the under 30 population than the over. So many (but far from all) have been spoiled and believe that life is a bed of roses. When that does not turn out to be the case (i.e., the real world) they prove, as a result, unable to handle. Hence this "education" ends up not serving the student but destroying him or her.
25
On almost every page of the New York Times I find information that is troubling and goes against my dearly and closely held beliefs. For God's sake, I just read Ross Douthat's column. Rather than suck my thumb and retreat to a "safe" room full of kindergarten toys, I was glad to read it and learn what conservatives think, because only then can I understand that reality and know how to counter it, or defend myself against it.
Education occurs when you're exposed to the world, and shielding yourself from it means that you're not receiving an education. If there are things that you find too sensitive to bear, then you shouldn't attend that meeting or take that course. Stay at home, in your room, with the windows shut and the TV off. But don't expect a university to alter its core mission in some misguided attempt to prevent people from being exposed to reality. If this were to happen, the students who were the most afraid of knowledge who would be setting the curricula. What kind of education would that provide?
Education occurs when you're exposed to the world, and shielding yourself from it means that you're not receiving an education. If there are things that you find too sensitive to bear, then you shouldn't attend that meeting or take that course. Stay at home, in your room, with the windows shut and the TV off. But don't expect a university to alter its core mission in some misguided attempt to prevent people from being exposed to reality. If this were to happen, the students who were the most afraid of knowledge who would be setting the curricula. What kind of education would that provide?
1514
Douthat, a conservative? Hahaha! The NY Times does in fact protect you from real conservatives, that's why they employ phonies like Douthat and Brooks.
To be fair, conservative papers do the same thing, hiring the most cliched and rigid 'liberals' they can find to write opposing columns. That's how both sides make the opposition look dumb.
To be fair, conservative papers do the same thing, hiring the most cliched and rigid 'liberals' they can find to write opposing columns. That's how both sides make the opposition look dumb.
55
The point remains, Jonathan, that regardless of which media outlet one favors, it's counterproductive to insulate oneself from uncomfortable ideas or experiences.
39
I kind of like Douthat but read Krugman's pieces for the same reason. And yes I can appreciate some of his views, misguided as they tend to be!
7
The world seems to be getting deteriorating across several important dimensions. One answer - the correct one - is that the world really is getting worse. Another answer - the one comforting to baby boomers - is that the world is not deteriorating, and that millennials are just too sensitive and are making too much noise.
It says a lot that all of the examples the author gave come from high-priced, private colleges. It would seem that if you are rich enough, you can insulate yourself from the world's growing problems. But far from proving the author's point, it disproves it. If the rich are fleeing, then they are either fleeing from real or imagined problems.
Any cursory look at the average millennial's experience confirms that the problems are real. Maybe we should ask wealthier young adults to suffer along with everyone else. But that is a very different discussion than the one presented by the author.