![]() I had made that mistake, I told them, and nearly had to pull over at one point because it was such a hard listen and brought tears to my eyes. For instance, this past spring I sent out a podcast on female genital mutilation to my students with the caveat that they should not listen to it while driving. ![]() For me, it always seemed to be common sense that when you find yourself, say, assigning a graphic description of rape, you might give your students a heads-up, during the prior class meeting, concerning what they are about to read.Įven now, I often issue "trigger warnings" more informally. I started including them formally, as part of the written syllabus, last year when I realized that I had been doing them informally for years. ![]() Here’s what some from the academic community had to say. My colleague, Conor Friedersdorf, chimed in on the topic this morning. It got us thinking: What is a trigger warning, anyway? What defines a safe space? Lots of people have questioned whether Dean of Students John Ellison, who wrote the letter, actually understands what the terms mean. Others argued that the wholesale rejection of things like trigger warnings misses the point. As Bourree highlighted yesterday, that premise outraged many alumni, who remember their years at the university as experiences rife with challenging and uncomfortable discussions. The thinking behind the letter, presumably, is that safe spaces and trigger warnings inherently suppress free speech and academic freedom-and, in turn, that the university felt a need to defend those values. The letter essentially warned students that the university-which for decades has espoused its commitment to “freedom of expression”-would not tolerate “intellectual ‘safe spaces’” and “so-called ‘trigger warnings.’” Yesterday, my colleague Bourree Lam looked at how University of Chicago alumni are responding to the high-profile letter their alma mater sent out last week to incoming freshmen. Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021.
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