Cornell University Draws The Line, Refuses To Insert ‘Trigger Warnings’ Before Class Discussions
Cornell University has refused to cave to student government demands that a “traumatic content” trigger warning be included in class syllabi, according to an email obtained by the Daily Caller.
The students, who can’t even, unanimously voted on March 23 to approve Resolution 31, which would “require instructors who present graphic traumatic content that may trigger the onset of symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to provide advance notice to students and refrain from penalizing students who opt out of exposure to such content.”
According to Cornell, however, the resolution violates the university’s commitment to academic freedom and freedom of inquiry.
“Academic freedom, which is a fundamental principle in higher education, establishes the right of faculty members to determine what they teach in their classrooms and how they teach it, provided that they behave in a manner consistent with professional ethics and competence, and do not introduce controversial matters unrelated to the subject of their course,” reads the email obtained by the Caller. “And freedom of inquiry establishes the right of students, researchers, and scholars to select a course of study and research without censure or undue interference.”
The trigger warnings would inform students that content in the course could include reference to “sexual assault, domestic violence, self-harm, suicide, child abuse, racial hate crimes, transphobic violence, homophobic harassment [and] xenophobia,” according to the resolution. Students who opt out of participating in the discussion would not be penalized.
Professors can choose to inform students of content discussed in class or explain why a topic is being discussed but cannot be forced to preface it in the syllabus, the email reads. Requiring faculty to disclose any topic that could be upsetting for students would infringe on faculty members’ “fundamental right to determine what and how to teach” and prevent that from adding topics throughout the semester. -Daily Caller
Cornell also believes the resolution would “have a chilling effect on faculty, who would naturally fear censure lest they bring a discussion spontaneously into new and challenging territory, or fail to accurately anticipate students’ reaction to a topic or idea,” and would stifle a student’s ability to openly ask questions or discuss in the classroom, the email continues.
Allowing students to opt out of learning about subjects that might upset them would “have a deleterious impact both on the education of the individual student, and on the academic distinction of a Cornell degree.”
Valeria Valencia, president of the Cornell Student Assembly, told the DCNF: “Although I embrace the shared governance system of Cornell University, I was disappointed to hear that President Pollack rejected Student Assembly Resolution 31: Mandating Content Warnings for Traumatic Content in the Classroom,” adding “I disagree with the idea that by implementing content warnings in the classroom, we would be infringing on the principle of academic freedom and freedom of speech. This resolution was created with the intention of supporting students, not anything else. In the future, I hope to see administration, faculty, and students working together to explore this idea and come up with an amicable solution.”
The absolute state of adult children in America…
Tyler Durden
Mon, 04/03/2023 – 20:40