Dear fellow college students,

This week, the University of Chicago sent a controversial letter to its incoming students. The letter details the University’s “commitment to academic freedom” and goes on to tell incoming students that political correctness in the form of trigger warnings, safe spaces and silencing of differing opinions will not be present at the university. The University of Chicago’s letter is one example of American colleges and universities’ fight against political correctness. As a college student, I have seen and experienced political correctness first hand. While in theory and in some forms of practice it is beneficial, as a whole, PC is destroying intellectual growth.

Political correctness is not a new phenomena and is also not a strictly “liberal” method of censorship. For decades, conservative (and often religious) groups have been censoring academic thought that does not agree with the status quo norms/morality. Examples of this can be seen in the Scopes Monkey Trial and the continual banning of “obscene” books in the 20th century. Evolution, a proven scientific fact, rivaled preconceived religious notions of intelligent design. Some of the greatest works in the English language were banned because they discussed topics that were deemed immoral and obscene. Even Bertrand Russell, quoted above, was barred from teaching at The College of the City of New York after being deemed too immoral to teach philosophy.

All liberals are not proponents of PC culture. President Obama has addressed and condemned it before. At a town hall in Iowa, President Obama said, “It’s not just sometimes folks who are mad that colleges are too liberal that have a problem. Sometimes there are folks on college campuses who are liberal, and maybe even agree with me on a bunch of issues, who sometimes aren’t listening to the other side, and that’s a problem too. I’ve heard some college campuses where they don’t want to have a guest speaker who is too conservative or they don’t want to read a book if it has language that is offensive to African-Americans or somehow sends a demeaning signal towards women. I gotta tell you, I don’t agree with that either. I don’t agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view. I think you should be able to — anybody who comes to speak to you and you disagree with, you should have an argument with ‘em. But you shouldn’t silence them by saying, ‘You can’t come because I'm too sensitive to hear what you have to say.’ That’s not the way we learn either.”

Political correctness, in my opinion, is academic and social censorship. It is an attempt to protect students from learning about discomforting subjects and differing (often conservative) opinions. Political correctness goes against everything higher education stands for. Colleges and universities are institutions for academic discourse and debate. A professor's job is to present you with information that will challenge your preconceived ideas. Teachers should not be silenced or forced to change their lessons to conform to how a student “feels” about an issue. To grow as an individual, you need to learn both sides of an issue and form your own opinion. If you only learn what reinforces your opinion and refuse to even ponder another person’s differing opinion, you will not grow as a student.

Modern society is full of discomforting practices and topics: racism, sexism, homophobia, to name a few, are prevalent in our culture. Discrimination can not be fought if you refuse to learn about it. If you never hear what is racist, how will you be able to fight it?

I am anti-PC on the grounds that it limits intellectual growth. However, contrary to popular belief, being anti-PC does not mean I believe everyone should go around offending everyone. If your opinion on a topic offends someone, it is the offended person’s duty to explain why what you said is offensive. The “just because” answer is unacceptable. The offender should also not be immediately silenced, demonized and shunned. If the offender can not learn why what you said is offensive, then he/she will continue being offensive.

I am a proud liberal but I am not proud of how some of my fellow liberals are trying to inhibit intellectual growth through limiting academic freedom. We are a part of a society full of differing opinions. It is your duty as a student to learn from those differing opinions. Going outside of your comfort zone is the only way you will be able to become a proactive member of society. Controversial speakers need to be heard. Opinions need to be challenged. Debates need to happen. Society can only move forward if it acknowledges everyone’s opinions.

Sincerely,

D.A. Dellechiaie

“Freedom in education has many aspects. There is first of all freedom to learn or not to learn. Then there is freedom as to what to learn. And in later education there is freedom of opinion.”
- Bertrand Russell