‘I quit my job as a content moderator. I can never go back to who I was before.’; The Washington Post, September 9, 2024

 Beatrix Lockwood, The Washington Post;  ‘I quit my job as a content moderator. I can never go back to who I was before.’

"Alberto Cuadra worked as a content moderator at a video-streaming platform for just under a year, but he saw things he’ll never forget. He watched videos about murders and suicides, animal abuse and child abuse, sexual violence and teenage bullying — all so you didn’t have to. What shows up when you scroll through social media has been filtered through an army of tens of thousands of content moderators, who protect us at the risk of their own mental health.

Warning: The following illustrations contain references to disturbing content."

With War Raging, Colleges Confront a Crisis of Their Own Making; The New York Times, October 26, 2023

 Frank Bruni, The New York Times; With War Raging, Colleges Confront a Crisis of Their Own Making

"Remember the student complaints about and the subsequent dismissal of an art history lecturer at Hamline University in Minnesota who — after giving students a trigger warning, so they could opt out of class — showed a historically important painting of the Prophet Muhammad? Hamline’s president, Fayneese Miller, defended that sequence of events by saying that to not weigh academic freedom against a “debt to the traditions, beliefs and views of students” is a “privileged reaction.” 

That’s a troubling assertion, as Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic: “If you don’t want your traditions, beliefs or views challenged, then don’t come to a university, at least not to study anything in the humanities or the social sciences.”"

Should College Come With Trigger Warnings? At Cornell, It’s a ‘Hard No.’; The New York Times, April 12, 2023

 Katherine Rosman, The New York Times ; Should College Come With Trigger Warnings? At Cornell, It’s a ‘Hard No.’

"Ms. Morey called it the “Stanford Effect,” referring to a 10-page open letter written in March by Jenny Martinez, dean of Stanford University Law School, in which she affirmed her decision to apologize to Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Donald J. Trump-appointed federal appeals judge, after hecklers interrupted his speech."

Brace Yourself in Act II: Trigger Warnings Come to the Stage; The New York Times, November 18, 2018

Michael Paulson, The New York Times;Brace Yourself in Act II: Trigger Warnings Come to the Stage

"Trigger warnings have, of course, become part of the college experience, surviving mockery and concerns about censorship to win acceptance, if not broad approval. Now demand for those warnings is spreading among the wider public. “People who have grown up with warnings now expect them,” said Becky Witmer, the managing director of ACT Theater in Seattle."

Trigger Warnings and Intellectual Freedom; The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, Intellectual Freedom Blog, June 13, 2017

Patricia Peters, The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, Intellectual Freedom Blog; 

Trigger Warnings and Intellectual Freedom

"Trigger warnings, initially designed to give advance notice of content potentially detrimental to those who have suffered trauma, have made their way into everyday situations and become code for “stuff that may be offensive or upsetting.” The controversy that continues to surround the use of trigger warnings in educational settings, whether K-12 or university, seems to boil down to whether one uses a narrow definition of the term or a broad definition."

The right shuts down free speech, too; Washington Post, 12/15/16

Catherine Rampell, Washington Post; The right shuts down free speech, too:

"The good news: Both the left and the right have reached consensus that free speech is important.

The bad news: “Free speech” has apparently been redefined to mean “speech with which I agree.”"

Academic Ethics: The Legal Tangle of ‘Trigger Warnings’; Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/13/16

Brian Leiter, Chronicle of Higher Education; Academic Ethics: The Legal Tangle of ‘Trigger Warnings’ :

"A report on trigger warnings by the American Association of University Professors identified similar cases, calling them "anti-intellectual and infantilizing," which many of them do seem to be. The AAUP pointed to a policy at Oberlin College (subsequently tabled) that listed the following as topics warranting trigger warnings: "racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and other issues of privilege and oppression." The draft Oberlin report even cited Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart since it could "trigger readers who have experienced racism, colonialism, religious persecution, violence, suicide and more."

There is plainly no legal or moral obligation to issue trigger warnings for these kinds of reasons, and there are strong moral reasons not to: The whole point of trigger warnings — as the real PTSD cases show — is to enable students to avoid engagement with materials. But how can that be compatible with the ethical imperative of educating young people? Students should, of course, engage with all facets of human experience in a serious education — including all the ghastly aspects of human experience — except to the extent that a documented medical condition makes that impossible...

Teachers should issue trigger warnings in the easy cases, but in all other cases, they ought to refrain from trying to shield students from serious study of the human experience, even when morally offensive. At the same time, teachers should discharge their fundamental duty — namely, helping students learn.

Sometimes discharging both tasks will require skill and sensitivity, but it is the ethical obligation of a serious teacher to develop both capacities."

"Walden Safe Space"; Doonesbury, GoComics, 10/16/16

Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury, GoComics; "Walden Safe Space"

Campuses Cautiously Train Freshmen Against Subtle Insults; New York Times, 9/6/16

Stephanie Saul, New York Times; Campuses Cautiously Train Freshmen Against Subtle Insults:

"The exchange was included in Ms. Marlowe’s presentation to recently arriving first-year students focusing on subtle “microaggressions,” part of a new campus vocabulary that also includes “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings.”

Microaggressions, Ms. Marlowe said, are comments, snubs or insults that communicate derogatory or negative messages that might not be intended to cause harm but are targeted at people based on their membership in a marginalized group."

Safe Spaces, Trigger Warnings And The University Of Chicago; On Point, WBUR, 8/31/16

[Podcast] On Point, WBUR; Safe Spaces, Trigger Warnings And The University Of Chicago:

"The University of Chicago is the latest school to push back against trigger warnings and safe spaces. We’ll look at the debate over political correctness on campus.

Guests

Stephanie Greene, senior at the University of Chicago, majoring in English. President of the Organization of Black Students. Member of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs Student Advisory Committee. (@all_worn_out)

Cosmo Albrecht, junior at the University of Chicago, majoring in public policy. Community and government liaison for the University of Chicago student government. Member of the student group, "Chicago Student Action." (@cosmo730)

Charles Lipson, professor of political science at the University of Chicago. (@Charles_Lipson)

Jonathan Chait, staff writer for New York magazine. (@jonathanchait)"

I’m a black UChicago graduate. Safe spaces got me through college.; Vox, 8/29/16

Cameron Okeke, Vox; I’m a black UChicago graduate. Safe spaces got me through college. :

"UChicago should know that trigger warnings and safe spaces exist to give those with firsthand experience a way to engage without sacrificing their well-being or safety. This accessibility is the key to a truly open marketplace of ideas and an essential pillar of academic freedom. Recklessly painting trigger warnings and safe spaces as enemies to academic freedom will only make UChicago a more hostile environment for marginalized first-years.

Being diverse isn't easy and our diversity ain’t free. Don’t let us in if you can’t make room for us."

University of Chicago Strikes Back Against Campus Political Correctness; New York Times, 8/26/16

Richard Perez-Pena, Mitch Smith, Stephanie Saul, New York Times; University of Chicago Strikes Back Against Campus Political Correctness:

"Last year, a faculty Committee on Freedom of Expression, appointed by Dr. Zimmer and headed by Professor Stone, produced a report stating that “it is not the proper role of the university to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”...

Many academics say the concerns reflected in the University of Chicago letter, while real, are overblown. “I asked faculty if any had ever been asked to give trigger warnings,” said Dr. Roth, of Wesleyan. “I think one person said they had.”

There often seems to be a generational divide on campus speech — young people demanding greater sensitivity, and their elders telling them to get thicker skins — but a survey by the Knight Foundation and Gallup gives a murkier picture. It found that 78 percent of college students said they preferred a campus “where students are exposed to all types of speech and viewpoints,” including offensive and biased speech, over a campus where such speech is prohibited. Students were actually more likely to give that response than adults generally.

But when asked specifically about “slurs and other language on campus that is intentionally offensive to certain groups,” 69 percent of college students said that colleges should be allowed to impose restrictions on such expression."

University of Chicago’s P.C. Crackdown Is Really About Keeping Right-Wing Donors Happy; Daily Beast, 8/26/16

Jay Michaelson, Daily Beast; University of Chicago’s P.C. Crackdown Is Really About Keeping Right-Wing Donors Happy:

"By coincidence, the U Chicago dean’s letter came out the same week that the National Labor Relations Board ruled that teaching and research assistants, who work for years as barely-paid serfs, and who until now have frequently been banned from organizing a union, are entitled to do so. The University of Chicago sent out another letter, this time to all faculty and graduate students, alleging (with no evidence, since none exists) that such a union could “be detrimental to students’ education and preparation for future careers.”

That kind of issue points toward the real crises affecting American higher education, issues that have nothing to do with Halloween costumes and everything to do with decreases in state funding, increases in corporate funding, the demise of tenure, and outrageous spirals of indebtedness and even poverty among academics. Funny, Dean Ellison didn’t provide any trigger warnings for those."

Don’t ask us for trigger warnings or safe spaces, the University of Chicago tells freshmen; Washington Post, 8/25/16

Susan Svrluga, Washington Post; Don’t ask us for trigger warnings or safe spaces, the University of Chicago tells freshmen:

"“You will find that we expect members of our community to be engaged in rigorous debate, discussion and even disagreement,” John “Jay” Ellison, the dean, wrote in a letter that accompanied a book, “Academic Freedom and the Modern University: The Experience of the University of Chicago.”

“At times this may challenge you and even cause discomfort.

“Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”"

Students Won the Campus Culture War; Daily Beast, 8/23/16

Lizzie Crocker, Daily Beast; Students Won the Campus Culture War:

"As of December 2015, students at roughly 80 schools nationwide had submitted lists of demands to their universities: calls for new deans and presidents, more globalized curricula at liberal arts colleges, and school-endorsed “safe spaces” for minority groups, among other things.

Many universities and colleges have attempted to assuage students—and right the wrongs of history—by abandoning symbols and traditions with ties to racism, colonialism, and slavery...

Indeed, a number of liberal arts schools have developed new diversity and inclusion initiatives in response to protests by the “Firebrand Generation”—a nickname, coined the New Yorker’s Nathan Heller, for today’s politically restive students.

As the new school year begins, it’s clear that universities are bending to student activists’ forcefully stated will.

These students have won many small and large battles against old-school institutions, sometimes refusing to eat until their vilified college leaders resigned. Do not expect students’ demands for change to die down anytime soon.

Here’s our guide to the most high-profile student protests over the last year—and how school administrations are heeding their calls for change."

Fighting for Free Speech on America’s Campuses; New York Times, 8/1/16

Cecilia Capuzzi Simon, New York Times; Fighting for Free Speech on America’s Campuses:

"The free-speech watchdog FIRE is a familiar irritant to college administrators, but until this past year, the rest of the country wasn’t paying much attention. An “epic” year is what Greg Lukianoff, president and chief executive of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, calls it. Colleges and universities were forced to publicly and painfully deal with a confluence of national issues — race, sexual assault, gay rights, politically correct speech — mirrored and magnified in the microcosm of campus life.

Finally, FIRE’s activism was syncing with the zeitgeist, in part because of Mr. Lukianoff’s role in framing the public interpretation of the campus turmoil. It was Mr. Lukianoff who made the argument, in a widely read opinion piece in The Atlantic, that today’s students are “coddled” and demanding protections against offensive words and ideas at the expense of intellectual rigor and the First Amendment. It was also Mr. Lukianoff who happened to be at Yale during the infamous Halloween costume shout-down of Prof. Nicholas Christakis, and whose viral video of it appeared to vividly illustrate his observations that many college students don’t understand what freedom of speech is, and who it applies to.

Freedom of speech, he said, is not an “intuitive” concept, and Americans take its benefits for granted. “I think everyone understands that they have a free-speech right, but they don’t necessarily understand why you should have one,” he said, sitting in his eighth-floor office in FIRE’s satellite space in Washington."

Univ. of Houston Faculty Devises Pointers on How to Avoid Getting Shot by Armed Students; Slate.com, 2/23/16

Elliot Hannon, Slate.com; Univ. of Houston Faculty Devises Pointers on How to Avoid Getting Shot by Armed Students:

"If having armed students seems like it would pretty significantly alter the balance of power and academic freedom in a college classroom, you need look no further than the Univ. of Houston. The university’s faculty senate held a meeting recently with a Powerpoint presentation aimed at assisting faculty in adapting to the new gun-toting normal. Here’s a slide that pretty much sums it up..."

Star Wars Trigger Warnings: These are the microaggressions you are looking for; Reason.com, 12/15/15

Zach Weissmueller, Austin Bragg, & Justin Monticello, Reason.com; Star Wars Trigger Warnings: These are the microaggressions you are looking for:

"Before seeing Star Wars, read the trigger warnings.""

Wisconsin Regents Back Free Speech; Associated Press via New York Times, 12/12/15

Associated Press via New York Times; Wisconsin Regents Back Free Speech:

"The University of Wisconsin has become the latest university system to officially affirm the right to free speech and academic freedom for all students amid concerns that academia is trying to protect students from being offended by classroom lectures and discussions.

The system’s Board of Regents voted 16 to 2 on Friday to adopt a resolution stating that the university should not shield people from ideas or opinions they find unwelcome or offensive.

“These are not just pretty words we are going to put in a brass plaque,” said a regent, José Delgado. “You’ve got to be able to listen hard, even if it hurts.”

Civil rights advocates are concerned that universities are trying to limit free speech to protect students from feeling offended. Civil liberties supporters have also raised concerns over the use of “trigger warnings” to alert students about uncomfortable course content. On some campuses, groups have demonstrated against or canceled appearances by contentious speakers."

The Coddling of the American Mind; Atlantic, September 2015

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, Atlantic; The Coddling of the American Mind:

"Two terms have risen quickly from obscurity into common campus parlance. Microaggressions are small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless. For example, by some campus guidelines, it is a microaggression to ask an Asian American or Latino American “Where were you born?,” because this implies that he or she is not a real American. Trigger warnings are alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause a strong emotional response. For example, some students have called for warnings that Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart describes racial violence and that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby portrays misogyny and physical abuse, so that students who have been previously victimized by racism or domestic violence can choose to avoid these works, which they believe might “trigger” a recurrence of past trauma."