Cornell leaders reject student resolution demanding course trigger warnings

Cornell University rejected a resolution passed by the school’s student assembly that would require professors to add trigger warnings to their syllabus for class content that could be offensive to students. 

The resolution, titled “Mandating Content Warnings for Traumatic Content in the Classroom,” was passed on March 23 and would make professors inform students in advance of “trigger classroom content.”

The student assembly says such topics include “sexual assault, domestic violence, self-harm, suicide, child abuse, racial violence, transphobic violence, homophobic harassment, etc.”

Cornell President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff said Monday the school “cannot accept this resolution,” saying it would “infringe on our core commitment to academic freedom and freedom of inquiry.”

While Pollack and Kotlikoff believe it would be “common courtesy” in some instances for professors to give warnings for controversial topics, requiring content warnings for all the topics stated in the resolution “would unacceptably restrict the academic freedom of our community, interfering in significant ways with Cornell’s mission.”

“It would have a chilling effect on faculty, who would naturally fear censure lest they bring a discussion spontaneously into new and challenging territory, or fail to accurately anticipate students’ reaction to a topic or idea,” Pollack and Kotlikoff said. “And it would unacceptably limit our students’ ability to speak, question, and explore, lest a classroom conversation veer into an area determined ‘off-limits’ unless warned against weeks or months earlier.”

The resolution also wanted Cornell to allow students to “opt-out of exposure to triggering content” and not be punished academically. 

The university rejected the request, saying it would “have a deleterious impact both on the education of the individual student, and on the academic distinction of a Cornell degree.”

“Learning to engage with difficult and challenging ideas is a core part of a university education: essential to our students’ intellectual growth, and to their future ability to lead and thrive in a diverse society. As such, permitting our students to opt out of all such encounters, across any course or topic,” the school said. 

Valeria Valencia, president for the Cornell Student Assmebly, pushed back on the school’s notion this resolution would curtail academic freedom and discussion. 

“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,” Valencia said. “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,” she added. “In the future, I hope to see administration, faculty, and students working together to explore this idea and come up with an amicable solution.”