Cornell Rejects Student Proposal for Trigger Warnings

Cornell University recently rejected a proposal that had been unanimously approved by the school’s student government to include trigger warnings in the class syllabi for any “traumatic content” they would be studying.

On March 23, the Cornell University Student Assembly voted unanimously to approve a resolution to “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.”

However, in an email, the school said that it would dismiss the resolution.

“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, which was obtained by The Daily 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.”

Valeria Valencia, Cornell Student Assembly president, said in a statement that “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.

“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.”