A university gallery showed art with Confederate imagery. Then students called to remove it.; The Washington Post, February 26, 2019

Mark Lynn Ferguson, The Washington Post; A university gallery showed art with Confederate imagery. Then students called to remove it.

"Joy Garnett, program associate for the National Coalition Against Censorship, said the school had other options than taking the art down. It could have provided more context around the exhibit, such as temporary dividers to conceal the art and signs cautioning visitors on the difficult subject matter. After the exhibit closed, Baldwin did hold listening sessions, but only students and faculty were allowed to attend, according to school spokeswoman Liesel Crosier. The sessions, argued Jonathan Friedman, project director for campus free speech at PEN America, a nonprofit devoted to defending freedom of speech, “would have likely been much richer if the exhibit were able to continue.”

Garnett also found fault with the artists, who she said need to understand the communities where they are showing their work. More than half of Baldwin’s residential students are not white. “It’s not about avoiding offending people,” Garnett said. “It’s about how do you couch the offense in a way that’s productive.”

The right shuts down free speech, too; Washington Post, 12/15/16

Catherine Rampell, Washington Post; The right shuts down free speech, too:

"The good news: Both the left and the right have reached consensus that free speech is important.

The bad news: “Free speech” has apparently been redefined to mean “speech with which I agree.”"

Is There Any Evidence Trigger Warnings Are Actually a Big Deal?; Science of Us, 12/15/15

Jesse Singal, Science of Us; Is There Any Evidence Trigger Warnings Are Actually a Big Deal? :

"What the conversation has lacked is any sort of solid information about how common trigger warnings, or debates about trigger warnings, really are on campuses. No one really knows whether the few anecdotal reports about truly ridiculous trigger-warning requests (a student in a class on rape law saying the term violate triggers her, for instance) are indicative of a bigger problem, or merely isolated instances that shouldn’t be spun into grand arguments about the decline of higher education, or the fragility of millennials, or whatever else.

Now we at last have some numbers. Last week, the National Coalition Against Censorship released the results of a survey about trigger warnings. The organization teamed up with the Modern Language Association and the College Art Association to ask those groups’ members to fill out a survey about their experiences with trigger warnings. The survey included both standard multiple-choice response items and chances for the respondents to write in their own responses.

It’s important to note that, as the NCAL itself acknowledges, this wasn’t a scientific survey — the organization didn’t conduct the usual, rigorous (and oftentimes expensive) procedure one would need to get a sample of respondents that’s approximately representative of the national population of college professors. (For one thing, the sample consisted, by definition, entirely of professors who study the subjects covered by the MLA and CAA."