The University of Chicago’s dean of students wrote a letter to incoming freshman with mostly standard college administrator fare with one exception: a clear denunciation of trigger warning culture and intellectual “safe spaces.” According to the dean, students should confront ideas and subjects they disagree with and make them uncomfortable. Otherwise, how can they approach them critically?
The letter triggered a swift reaction. The dean had obviously not checked his privilege. Rival deans boasted of their college’s safe spaces and extensive trigger warnings. The dean, by advocating open debate and curiosity, was off on an island.
This is all very depressing. Students, long seen as the agitators and liberators in academia, have become the censors. All in the name of what? Mental health? Anyone with any knowledge of psychology (or anxiety and depression sufferers like myself) knows avoidance heals nothing. Only critical and constructive confrontation can lead to growth.
Under this guise of mental health and “safety” lies the same fearful dogma that underpins all censorship. Anything considered the least bit offensive or heterodox by the zeitgeist is suppressed or receives the cruelest (ironically) condemnation. Like Tipper Gore’s beloved children preyed upon by Prince and Twisted Sister, every conceivable victim needs airtight insulation from the big bad world full of racism, war and sexism. Otherwise, well, as many of my peers say when exasperated by some offense: THEY CAN'T EVEN RIGHT NOW.
Just because I believe in the free flow of ideas - good, bad, and ugly - does not mean I think campuses should ignore the well being of their students. We pay them enough money to provide a good counseling center and other wellness amenities. And the line between a disturbing conversation and harassment should be enforced, however difficult.
But why are we here? I know, to get a degree and make a lot of money. But, besides that. To learn about the world? To develop our critical thinking skills? That’s what’s advertised (next to the luxury dorms). But with standardized learning on one hand, and the cult of the victim on the other, critical thinking is in critical condition. But, it’s survived worse.
