There’s no safe space from President Trump

Slowly but surely, student expectations about universities, professors and higher education have been changing in unexpected and highly problematic ways. In the United States, for instance, students are now demanding that professors provide trigger warnings and safe spaces before they raise any issue or debate that could elicit a powerful emotional response or challenge, even indirectly, their personal, cultural and religious beliefs. In Canada and the United States, some students have confronted professors and administrators to seek relief and punitive measures as a result of having to endure these traumatic episodes.

Sometimes the complaints are directed at fellow students: this year at Mount Royal University in Calgary, one student confronted another because she felt unsafe in the presence of someone wearing a Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” that. Students at Queen’s University cancelled their production of Othello because they felt unsafe after some criticized their choice to cast a white person as the main character.

At the core of these demands is the notion that university students shouldn’t have to confront or be exposed to ideas or arguments that might cause them emotional or intellectual distress. Instead, universities are supposed to reinforce and protect students’ beliefs.

But, of course, the real world is not so kind or accommodating. Case in point: the United States made history last week by electing the first president in the modern era to have made hateful, racist, homophobic and misogynic statements.

What are university students to do?

Should they demand that the White House issue trigger warnings every time President Trump is set to make a statement or appearance? Should the government create safe zones where students and citizens can meet with counsellors every time President Trump says something on the radio or television?

It is precisely because these types of situations exist in the real world that universities, professors and students must resist things like trigger warnings, safe spaces and avoiding issues or debates that challenge personal views.

Instead, universities have a responsibility to do the opposite — to embrace their unique location as a place to research and debate controversial ideas about the world and the human condition. These institutions, in many ways, are the ideal venues for students and professors to navigate these issues together, challenge and test them, and develop distinctive views and arguments about their flaws and merits.

People tend to forget that universities are supposed to be somewhat uncomfortable places. They aren’t meant to reinforce pre-existing opinions and biases. They are supposed to push us to think broadly and systematically about a range of issues that our society is confronting now and will