Opinion
Safe spaces and trigger warnings do not limit academic freedom
By Caroline Kreidberg ’17
September 22, 2016
Tags opinion
This past August, as an incoming class of first year students were getting ready to matriculate to the University of Chicago, they received a blunt message in a letter from the Undergraduate Dean of Admissions, Jay Ellison: "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."
I believe that Dean Ellison's message displays ignorance in regards to what safe spaces and trigger warnings are and how they function. Additionally, this message perpetuates stigmas surrounding mental health, and in contrast to his stated commitment, actually limits academic freedom for many students.
A trigger warning is a verbal or written announcement that there is certain content that may be more upsetting for some people based on their personal experiences. Trigger warnings do not limit content, but merely give warning, as the name itself suggests. A safe space is an environment that encourages people to talk and feel comfortable about their gender, sexuality, and other identities that are not considered within traditional social "norms," as well as being able to discuss their cultural backgrounds and experiences without others threatening their safety. Safe spaces may limit hateful and harassing speech; however, hate and harassment does not further an intellectual debate or discussion. It serves only to derail conversation and prevent any meaningful understanding of a topic. I have been in safe spaces and have been in spaces that use trigger warnings; in neither of these circumstances did safe spaces or trigger warnings limit true academic freedom. If anything, I have had more intellectually diverse conversations when safe spaces and trigger warnings have been in place. In my experiences at Hamilton College I have heard students talk more openly about their experiences when they know that they will not be harassed.
While I can talk about this from a theoretical perspective, I prefer to speak from my personal experience of benefitting from safe spaces. In the interest of mental health, I am going to give a trigger warning for sexual assault and mental illness (See? That took two seconds). During my junior year of college I was sexually assaulted over winter break. At this point the details of the assault are not as important as everything that happened afterwards.
Less than two weeks after I was assaulted, I was having dinner with my younger brother and some other people. Not knowing what had happened, he was asking me questions about how to ask for consent. Even though the assault was still very raw in my memory, I was happy to answer his questions because I want my brother to have safe and healthy sexual relationships. Another person at the table decided this was a good opportunity to make jokes about sexual assault and rape. He asked several times how many pages his contract had to be before he kissed a woman and said that being too intoxicated to give consent did not mean it should be considered assault. I tried to engage in a meaningful conversation with him but he did not take it seriously. Having a history of anxiety and panic attacks, I felt like I was going to implode. I couldn't think clearly; I felt like I was going to pass out, and so I got up from the table and walked out.
Returning to Hamilton for the spring semester, I found myself in many similar situations where classmates refused to even listen to claims of sexual assault from surivivors and victims. In the months that followed my sexual assault, I was not able to speak out about this and maintain my mental health because of the ease with which I heard people bashing survivors and victims. Hearing people blame survivors and victims and defending the actions of the perpetrators raised my normally high anxiety to a level I had never previously experienced.
I spent a large portion of last spring semester lying in my dorm room bed, feeling completely immoblilized and unable to perform regular daily functions. Coupled with my anxiety, I also developed depression during this time which made me feel as though I would never get better. While I normally participate in class discussions, last semester it was difficult to say anything at all because I had been made to feel completely worthless. I am normally a diligent student, but I considered dropping out of college because I was unable to do much of my school work or even just have a normal conversation.
In many ways I was lucky. I am not trying to suggest that this made the sexual assault "better," but I did not face many of the challenges that others do when they are sexually assaulted or raped. I was sexually assaulted once, and the person who sexually assaulted me did not go to Hamilton. I did not have to see them every day, which can be triggering. But I did have to listen to the results of the horrific rape culture we live in: that was inescapable.
Fortunately, I was able to heal from the mental and emotional trauma of my sexual assault because safe spaces do exist at Hamilton College. I wrote and performed a piece for the Womyn Speak Out event in a room full of students who were there to support me and other speakers. Those who listened to me and offered me the understanding and compassion I so desperately needed healed me. Refusing to support safe spaces and trigger warnings demonstrates a refusal to support mental health and healing. The consequences of this are more than theoretical or intellectual. Mental illness can be debilitating, as it was for me and, in some circumstances, life-threatening.
Refusing to support safe spaces limits the academic freedom of people who have experienced this and other types of trauma. This is not only about sexual assault and rape culture, but about trauma that results from racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, classism and other oppressive institutions. Many people who have experienced these different types of trauma are shouting loudly, but there are voices that will forever be muffled or silenced if they are unable to participate in a classroom setting.
If we are going to talk about threats to academic freedom, let's talk about the rape culture that silences victims and survivors of sexual assault and rape, or the lack of physical accessibility on many college campuses or institutional heteronormativity that silences queer and trans voices. These are the real threats to academic diversity and freedom. Where is Dean Ellison's concern for these limitations on academic freedom? It may be uncomfortable for thsoe who have always had the loudest voices in the classroom to suddenly realize that they need to share that space and respect their peers' cultural backgrounds and their experiences, but we must acknowledge that safe spaces and trigger warnings, which increase inclusiveness, are not a threat to academic freedom.