Editor’s Page: Trigger Warnings

Abstract

As another semester approaches, faculty members are busy tweaking courses in preparation for first-time and returning college students. Hot topics, like MOOCS and helicopter parents, are discussed as faculty members plan for an increasingly diverse student body. While not entirely new in higher education, Btrigger warnings^ are another hot topic. Trigger warnings are alerts placed on texts to give students advance warning that instructional materials may remind students of a past traumatic experience and could Btrigger^ a strong emotional response. A quick search of the Chronicle of Higher Education revealed a number of opinion pieces on the topic in 2014 and continuing attention by journalists in 2015. A discussion of trigger warnings and their appropriateness has also garnered attention in the Times Higher Education; The Huffington Post; the New Republic; and only a few days ago in Australia’s most widely circulated national newspaper, The Australian, to name only a few of the outlets. Some writers suggest that texts that deal with issues such as racism, sexism, sexual violence, and poverty (to name a few) may be potentially offensive and could trigger an extreme reaction based on a student’s prior experience. Therefore, students should be alerted to these potential triggers by placing an advance warning on the course syllabus, if not directly on the text. The interest in trigger warnings in higher education gained momentum when four students at Columbia voiced their concerns about a fellow student’s reaction to Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the treatment of rape in the text. At about the same time, students at the University of California at Santa Barbara passed a resolution calling for mandatory trigger warnings, and an office at Oberlin College in Ohio issued guidelines on the use of trigger warnings. It seems that the momentum has subsided, but not disappeared. Advocates for trigger warnings believe that an increasing number of students enter college with troubled histories or some form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD usually associated with returning veterans), which can be triggered by instructional materials that touch on their past traumas. Thus, trigger warnings would give these students an opportunity to opt out of class during troubling discussions and to avoid materials that could trigger a reaction. Weighing in, some mental health professionals have noted that trigger warnings may actually Innov High Educ (2015) 40:373–374 DOI 10.1007/s10755-015-9342-7