According to Forbes, Administrators at Cornell University have rejected a student resolution requiring faculty to provide a trigger warning in the classroom when presenting content that can be considered traumatic to students. 

In the Resolution SA 31 —that was passed by the Student Assembly on March 23 — there is no complete description of what traumatic content is, but it includes: sexual assault, domestic violence, self harm, suicide, child abuse, racial hate crimes, transphobic violence, homophobic harassment and xenophobia. 

Alleging that the policy would interfere with the professor’s right to teach, Cornell President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff said that it would prevent faculty from naturally bringing discussions to the classrooms. 

“We cannot accept this resolution, as the actions it recommends would infringe on our core commitment to academic freedom and freedom of inquiry, and are at odds with the goals of a Cornell education,” wrote Cornell President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff this week. 

Pollack and Kotlikoff acknowledged that “common courtesy would suggest that in some cases faculty may wish to provide notice, whether via the course syllabus or in the classroom, when they will be addressing topics that some may find challenging or painful.”

The resolution would also protect students who choose to opt-out of exposure to triggering warning content — “contingent on their responsibility to make up any missed content” — but the administrators vetoed it. They stated that “learning to engage with difficult and challenging ideas is a core part of a university education.” 

Recent studies throughout the world have shown trigger warnings are either ineffective or counterproductive. 

To read more about the case and the studies around the effectiveness of trigger warnings, click here.