Trigger warnings in college classes

Rebecca Meghani News Editor

The administration at Cornell University recently rejected a proposal to require faculty to provide trigger warnings to students on class content that may be considered graphic or traumatic.

Claire Ting and Shelby Williams, representatives of the university’s student assembly, submitted a proposal, titled Resolution SA 31, describing their goal to require instructors to provide a notice to students and refrain from penalizing students who opt out of exposure to potentially graphic content.

The resolution was passed by the Student Assembly and sent to the administration on March 31.

The recommendation mandates warnings for topics including sexual assault, domestic violence, selfharm, suicide, child abuse, racial violence, transphobic violence, homophobic harassment and xenophobia.

The resolution explains the purpose of the warnings: to avoid triggering students with PTSD who may suffer from forms of anxiety, fear, irritability, flashbacks and panic attacks.

It also outlined that, if enacted, students who chose to opt out of class due to triggering content would not be penalized, contingent on their responsibility to make

Hiring

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Additionally, in the days following the incident, Arthur Grand referred to itself as a minority-owned company.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is illegal to publish a job posting that uses race to differentiate applicants.

This job posting has sparked a conversation about discriminatory hiring practices, including topics of systematic racism and people of color being dismissed when saying that lack of diversity is a pipeline problem.

A recent study conducted by the business website Gitnux found that more than 60% of U.S. employees reported experiencing up any missed content.

In early April, the university’s administrators responded to students’ pleas for change.

“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,” the administrators said.

In response to the denial, Claire Ting, representative for the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and Student Assembly member, explained her thoughts.

“I agree with the core of what she addresses or witnessing workplace discrimination.

Inequitable hiring in the U.S. is rooted in systematic racism and only increases the Black-white wealth gap.

These practices, such as simply having a “Black name,” can affect prospective employees as early as the application process.

The National Fund for Workplace Solutions reports that just 20% of Fortune 500 companies account for half of the hiring discrimination in the U.S.

While Western societies have fought to make improvements, such as through the Civil Rights Movement, progressive steps still seem insufficient to enact real, lasting change.

Priya Hemphill, a se- in terms of academic freedom and learning to engage with challenging material, I think that we’re very much on the same page there,” Ting said. “At the same time,

I also believe that we are both individuals who seek for a better Cornell community — trying

Post and other high-profile media outlets.

It was also inspired by a student’s recent experience studying, in graphic detail, the Rape of Nanking, where soldiers committed atrocious human rights abuses against captured Chinese civilians, af- in a letter to its incoming freshman class.

“Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation that more than half of the sample have used trigger warnings to avoid triggering students with potentially upsetting material.

Of those who had used trigger warnings, 64.7% chose to implement the cautionary messages without request from students or administration.

Many institutions, like UC Berkeley, choose to use their syllabi to warn students of potentially triggering topics.

“Conflict is an inherent, and good, part of a university environment, but not when it impedes learning and inquiry,” said university administrators at UC Berkeley. “Of course, instructors cannot hope to foresee all possible areas of conflict, but they can come prepared with strategies for generating good discussions.” to make the environment better for Cornell students so that we can produce the next generation’s leaders — and in doing so we must serve the needs of our [student] communities.”

Evelyn Evan, a freshman history major at GC, discussed the topic of trigger warnings in college classes.

Ting said the resolution was written in light of the issue’s mischaracterization by Fox News, The New York nior theatre major at GC on the verge of entering the workforce, shared her concerns as a young Black woman.

“I think I have been more hesitant to apply for jobs outside of At- ter experiencing sexual assault themselves.

Cornell President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikof asserted that the idea of these warnings may be “appropriate,” but might also infringe upon academic freedom.

In 2016, the University of Chicago discussed the popular topic lanta, or places where I know race isn’t a concern,” Hemphill said. “I know that’s not a concern for my white friends. They worry more about the distance from their family or the cost of liv- of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own,” said John Ellison, Dean of Students at University of Chicago.

A 2016 NPR poll asked 800 professors across the country about their use of trigger warnings in the classroom.

The results showed ing, whereas I have to worry about if they are going to be racist to me.”

Hemphill went on to explain the realizations she hopes employers have in the future.

“There are less, and dif-

“I think trigger warnings can be a good thing because, for some people, certain topics can trigger PTSD,” Evan said. “Just like a brief warning, I don’t really see a problem with that.” ferent, opportunities for minorities than there are white people,” Hemphill said. “There are many more things to consider before race or gender when hiring someone.”

With an increase in content and trigger warnings in higher education throughout the country, the debate surrounding the matter is set to continue.

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“All the girls have been awesome,” Krumdieck said. “Just funny things that happened on the bus, like all those little things. You don’t remember the wins and losses, but just the times you spent with them.”

Senior setter Emily Long, who has spent four seasons with Krumdieck, recalled the annual Halloween practices as some of her favorite memories with her coach.

“I remember, one year, she came in on a little scooter playing some kind of song, and it was really funny,” Long said. “We were all standing out there already, and we were like, ‘Where’s coach?’ and then we hear this music, and she just comes out scootering around on the court.”

Callie Miller, a junior outside hitter, remembered fondly that during the Friday practices Krumdieck would try to liven up with music and intrasquad scrimmages.

“When we would have Friday practices, she would always bring out the music, we would get to play (against) each other and it would just be a fun Friday,” Miller said.

Although freshman libero Alanis Bernis only played under Krumdieck for one season, she believes Krumdieck has made a lasting impact on her.

“She will always have a place in my heart that no other coach will have,” Bernis said. “I’ve had a million coaches, but she was my first college coach, she gave me my first experience, and I think I’m going to compare everyone else to her now because she was good to me, she was good to us.”

One thing that all three players agreed on was that one of Krumdieck’s best qualities that set her apart from other coaches was her genuine, caring heart for her players. She always saw her players as humans first, rather than just athletes that only need to focus on their physical performance.

“She always cares about what’s going on outside of our athletic lives,” Long said. “She always wants to make sure our academics are good, our social lives are good and we are okay emotionally and mentally, not just physically.”

Krumdieck believes that, going forward, the key to the volleyball program continuing to have success is both bringing in the right coach, which she firmly believes the college will do, and recruiting more and more talent.

“I think the school is easy to recruit to,” Krumdieck said. “It has high academics. It fits a volleyball student athlete perfectly, so I think as long as you keep recruiting to that, the sky’s the limit,” Krumdieck said.

Krumdieck will be pursuing a career opportunity in fundraising and event planning at her high school alma mater,

Jon Rahm wins his first green jacket

Drew Bogumill

Staff Writer

The 87th edition of the Masters Tournament has concluded, and Jon Rahm took home the green jacket after beating out Brooks Koepka by four strokes.

Right out the gate, Rahm and Koepka were going at it, along with Viktor Hovland. All three were tied for the lead after round one at 7-under-par.

The other big news of day one was Tiger Woods shooting a 74. Woods went into the tournament having made the cut 22 consecutive times.

Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 golfer in the world, had a solid start to the tournament. Even with his trouble on the greens, Scheffler still posted a 68, putting him only three strokes behind the lead.

Round two was all Koepka, as he continued his stellar performance while also managing to finish before the bad weather came in and halted play.

After two trees fell and inclement weather suspended play on

Friday afternoon, it resumed Saturday, meaning several groups had to stretch their 18 holes over two days.

As Koepka sat comfortably in the clubhouse, Rahm did his best to close the gap on the leaderboard. Rahm had a topsy-turvy final four holes, as he went birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey on 15, 16, 17 and 18. He finished the day at 10-under par through 36 holes, in sole possession of second place.

Woods made the cut for a record 23rd consecutive Masters’ cut, tying Gary Player and Fred Couples.

The bad weather continued during round three, suspending play again. Koepka was 13-under par through six holes, Rahm was second at 9-under par and amateur Sam Bennett was in third at 6-under par.