Since 1919

The Prairie News

Since 1919

The Prairie News

Since 1919

The Prairie News

Trigger warnings make appearance in academia

Trigger+warnings+make+appearance+in+academia

Imagine a world where everything came with warning labels similar to those on cigarette cartons. Imagine what life would be like if, everywhere you went, there were warnings letting you know when you could see something you may not want to. Perhaps it is a nude photo. Perhaps it is a war scene. Perhaps it is something that “triggers” a feeling of distress or trauma.
According to the article “Warning: The Literary Canon Should Make Students Squirm,” from the New York Times, the campuses of some universities across the nation have been addressed with concerns from students of some of the content they are covering in classes. Students are requesting what are known as “trigger warnings,” which the New York Times defines as “explicit alerts that the material [students] are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans.”
Trigger warnings have long been used on the internet, first appearing on feminist websites. The idea was to protect assault victims from material that may trigger PTSD. They have since become more widespread, landing on a variety of websites and material readers may find distressing, and now trigger warnings are landing in classrooms.
Trigger warnings have been a prominent topic at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where the student government formally passed a resolution calling for them. Professors would have to include mandatory trigger warnings on their course syllabi that indicate days of lectures that would include readings, films or discussions that may trigger feelings of physical or emotional distress.
The resolution passed by UC Santa Barbara’s student government calls for warnings if course content will involve “depictions and discussions of rape, sexual assault, suicide, pornography or graphic violence, among other things,” according to an editorial in the Los Angeles Times. Professors would be required to excuse students from class with no penalty if the students felt the material would cause them to become distressed. It is unclear how assignments would be complete or tests would be scored in regards to the “triggering” course content.
The resolution is simply advisory, meaning it is a recommendation from the student government that campus authorities can either reject or turn into policy.
Campus authorities would be wise to choose the former. As clearly stated in the editorial from the LA Times, “[They] should explain firmly to students why such a policy would be antithetical to all that college is supposed to provide: a rich and diverse body of study that often requires students to confront difficult or uncomfortable material, and encourages them to discuss such topics openly.”
It is one thing for professors to give students a heads up that they will be covering content that could be distressing, but it turns into something completely different when professors must excuse students for the day. That brings it to the point where it changes from sensitivity to censorship. Allowing students to miss class without consequences allows students to self-censor themselves from things that are real.
As noted in the LA Times editorial, psychologists have pointed out that a post-traumatic response is just as likely to be triggered by an incident completely unrelated to the subject matter, such as catching a glimpse of the same color of clothing that was visible during the traumatic event or a certain scent that was in the air that day.
Trigger warnings contribute to a college culture that is too overprotective and hypersensitive in an effort to ensure not to offend any students and make sure that no student is made to feel uncomfortable. College classrooms should not have to be “politically correct” because life isn’t. Life doesn’t care who sees something emotional or something graphic or something distressing. Life is real. These things happen, and real people, like college students, witness them.
Colleges, universities and professors should not and cannot wrap students in bubble wrap, nor give students the power to do it themselves.

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