In a letter to incoming freshmen, University of Chicago Dean of Students Jay Ellison outlined the school’s policy on freedoms of expression- to wit, that the university would not support trigger warnings, the use of safe spaces, or cancel guest speakers due to controversy surrounding them.

Technically, a safe space is an area where a student can relax and feel comfortable, and not be threatened or shamed due to any particular facet of their existence, including things like race, gender identity, religion, or sexual orientation.

A trigger warning is a courtesy warning, and, in some cases, deferment of material that may cover some topic which would trigger a traumatic recall of some previous harm done them.

And uninviting guest speakers typically occurs most prominently when a faculty or student body opposed someone chosen to make a commencement speech or the like, in protest of some action or position the speaker has taken

Many opponents of the concepts of trigger warnings and safe spaces say that they’re making the American college student soft and weak. And I think there’s a lot to be said for that.

My instincts, be they right or wrong, say that the best way to treat a wound isn’t to try not to move it or touch it or think about it, but to reach down and fix it. Setting a bone or jamming a shoulder back in place or treating a burn hurts. It is not comfortable. But getting through these things is essential so that the wounds heal correctly, and don’t instead fester.

In the same way, I think that isolating students from the things that scare them, or annoy them, or infuriate them, is doing them two disservices:

The first is that we think ignoring or isolating them from their “triggers” is going to help, instead of just leaving them even more unprepared to deal with life.

College is about preparing people to be adults and citizens, in its own weird way, and telling them to deal with heavy, difficult topics by ignoring it and running away is not setting them up for success.

The second is assuming that they can’t handle it. Students aren’t quite as dumb as they’re portrayed; they’re not quite as weak as they appear.

They have the faculties to handle controversy- maybe not well, or gracefully, but those aren’t requirements- or they’ll have to have them soon, and the best way to jumpstart that process is to expose them to the sorts of situations in a controlled environment that will allow them to handle it later in life.

If a student has a particularly troublesome relationship with some controversial topic or another, there’s no reason they can’t leave or ask the teacher themselves for a deferment on the issue. I, for example, get particularly broken up over books where the dog dies. I cope with it by weeping openly. Problem solved!

On the other hand, why would the University of Chicago go out of the way to make such a point? If they wanted to do it, why not just go ahead and do it and not tell anyone- to ask forgiveness, not permission? This letter smacks of political statement, and if there’s anything that bothers me, it’s when colleges try to justify political statements by saying they’re for another reason.

Because who does giving the finger to trigger warnings and safe spaces appeal to? “Good old, hard-working Americans, who never needed any of that pansy liberal crap.”

I don’t make any claims to have a handle on what those demographics might be, but I’m going to make an intellectual leap and assume that those people railing against things like political correctness are also not student psychologists, or educators, or etc. It’s statement that seems calculated to appeal to a certain subset of people, and I’d be a better person than I am to resist saying that those people are not ones I necessarily want to see appealed to in setting student policy.

And lastly, why scrap the whole process? I get having a policy of not disinviting speakers. That’s institutional stubbornness, a refusal to be messed with because people don’t like your speaker, and I get that.

But, while students are usually capable of handling things, maybe sometimes they have an off day. College is a wildly variable time in your life, and so many things can affect your mind in positive and negative ways.

Stress and anxiety and growing and relationships and distance from home and eating and sleep: not everyone can handle everything well all the time. Sometimes we need to fall back.

I think there is value in not constantly getting blindsided by controversy in class, in having somewhere to retreat to. I personally google pictures of Australian Shepherds whenever I find class is getting under my skin, but some people may need a little more distance.

You may have something bigger going on as you figure out who you are in the world. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If pulling back and collecting yourself is what you need to do to fight again the next day, you do what you have to do. And I think there’s a great deal of value in knowing that you always have somewhere safe to fall back to.