Trigger warnings, safe spaces, and fascism on college campuses

[Moliere]

Trigger warnings, safe spaces, and fascism on college campuses

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[CardiacCoug]

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Funny story.

Great choice for that girl obviously. There is a huge pipeline of Nashville kids going to Auburn -- she is going to have such a better college experience at Auburn than she would at Yale.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Faculty member at Duke opts out of non-mandatory racism workshop, faces discipline, resigns his job.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-heretic-at-duke-divinity-school-1495403228?nan_pid=1860573039

[wuapinmon]

Faculty member at Duke opts out of non-mandatory racism workshop, faces discipline, resigns his job.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-heret...pid=1860573039

Is there a non-paywall link?

EDIT: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/loc...152096332.html

[Jeff Lebowski]

Is there a non-paywall link?

EDIT: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/loc...152096332.html

It is all over the news, esp. the conservative outlets. Here is the NYT take on it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/e...hool.html?_r=0

I wish the WSJ link worked (it did for me at first), because it had some great quotes from the prof in question. Fascinating guy. I think losing people like him is a big loss for academia.

[SCcoug]

I just read up on the craziness going on at Evergreen State. I'm amazed that so many administrators are afraid to stand up to what I'm hoping is a small number of students/faculty causing all of this.

[Green Monstah]

This probably belongs in the "Bag on your kids" thread, but my daughter had a stressful week leading up to finals. She had an episode where she blew up on all of us and stormed up to her room. A couple of hours later, I went up to talk to her, and she left a note on her door that said, "I just spent the last 90 minutes coloring so that I could relax enough to study, so please respect my space and not talk to me until tomorrow."

*sigh*

[CardiacCoug]

Faculty member at Duke opts out of non-mandatory racism workshop, faces discipline, resigns his job.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-heret...pid=1860573039

Funny. I wish I had the guts to hit reply all to dozens of people and say something like he did. Hilarious but no surprise he would be in trouble.

"I exhort you not to attend this training,” Professor Griffiths wrote in sharp keystrokes. “Don’t lay waste your time by doing so. It’ll be, I predict with confidence, intellectually flaccid: there’ll be bromides, clichés and amen-corner rah-rahs in plenty. When (if) it gets beyond that, its illiberal roots and totalitarian tendencies will show.”

[tooblue]

This probably belongs in the "Bag on your kids" thread, but my daughter had a stressful week leading up to finals. She had an episode where she blew up on all of us and stormed up to her room. A couple of hours later, I went up to talk to her, and she left a note on her door that said, "I just spent the last 90 minutes coloring so that I could relax enough to study, so please respect my space and not talk to me until tomorrow."

*sigh*

Ontario campus counsellors say they're drowning in mental health needs

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/mental-health-ontario-campus-crisis-1.3771682

The idea of safe spaces has been taken to an extreme here, and it's clear it's a contributing factor. It's a serious issue on my campus. We are overwhelmed right now. All faculty in my division were voluntold to attend a mental health first aide training course. My certificate is in the mail.* The focus of the course was on how to defuse situations, and effectively encourage individuals to get the help they need. The problem is, there are scant resources available.

*Interestingly, because of my experience in church leadership and a mission, I had actually been witness (the only enrolee) to nearly everyone of the scenarios and case studies portrayed in video, or role played during the course.

As an aside, I had a student this past year, literally (yes, in a literal manner) threaten to kill herself while my class was in session. It was a traumatizing experience for all involved. She was overwhelmed, and the project work in my course put her over the edge.

[Walter Sobchak]

Is there a non-paywall link?

EDIT: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/loc...152096332.html

Documents at amconmag.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Documents at amconmag.

Wow. Thanks for the link. That was a fascinating read.

I love Paul Griffiths. It's a damn shame he resigned.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I just read up on the craziness going on at Evergreen State. I'm amazed that so many administrators are afraid to stand up to what I'm hoping is a small number of students/faculty causing all of this.

This was a good piece focusing on Evergreen specifically and the situation in general.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/0....co/m0g3gMK4Tw

[jay santos]

I'm going to start requesting a trigger warning for ridiculous trigger warnings.

[myboynoah]

I'm going to start requesting a trigger warning for ridiculous trigger warnings.

Racist, homophobic, misogynist.

[tooblue]

I'm going to start requesting a trigger warning for ridiculous trigger warnings.

That's funny. Unfortunately, it's now a reality. I write into my course outlines that I require a student to provide me written notice of what they might consider to be triggering subject matter, prior to requesting there be a trigger warning for any material I might discuss or show to the class. They are given a specific time frame in which to submit the written notice. Otherwise, they can in no way claim my class is not a safe space. It's a philosophy and contemporary art class. I show and talk about some strange stuff.

Also, we have a Health and Wellness centre where students can register and be granted accommodation for any variety of legitimate mental health challenges. This past year, some faculty went to the centre to register themselves, requesting accommodation in concordance with the student accommodations. They were turned away, which has now lead to a grievance being filed with our union. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next year.

This issue is coming to a head. It's not going to be pretty when it all blows up.