Student Association President Mackenzie Mertikas detailed a new initiative to update trigger warnings in different classes across campus during Monday’s Assembly meeting.

This became an issue near the beginning of Mertikas’ term when students expressed concerns about sensitive topics discussed in classes, especially when those topics stray from class content.

“One example would be a discussion of sexual assault and violence in something like an economics class,” Mertikas said. “Students who are really triggered by that may be caught completely off guard and feel really uncomfortable in that space.”

A concern many students expressed was verbal trigger warnings professors give at the beginning of particularly sensitive classes, Mertikas said. Students may feel uncomfortable leaving in the middle of class due to a trigger warning because they fear what their classmates may think, she said.

Mertikas and SA Vice President Sameeha Saied met with several university administrators last Friday to plan faculty development of better trigger warnings across the university, Mertikas said. Robert Hradsky, vice president of the student experience, and Martha Diede, director of SU’s Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, were at the meeting.

While SU would not be able to restrict what professors could discuss in class, Mertikas brainstormed different approaches to the issue in the meeting with administrators. Some possibilities include providing a trigger warning in the syllabus prior to student registration or addressing the sensitive content on the first day of class so students aren’t surprised later on.

SA leaders also considered adding a discussion to the existing SEM 100 first-year seminar course on the issue and how students should prepare for possible sensitive content in their classes.

Mertikas is hoping to see these changes made during the next set of faculty and staff inclusive teaching trainings.

“There should never be a situation that triggers students, especially in an academic space,” she said. “If you are paying to come to this university and are required to take specific courses, you should never feel traumatized from personal experience or class discussion.”

Other business

• Mertikas and Saied proposed a bill for a panel with Bruce Alexander, a psychologist and mental health speaker. They hope to focus this panel on the intersectionality of mental health as well as the difference between the social and mental models of addiction. The bill will be voted on next week.
• Academic Affairs Committee Chair Stephanie Hausman created a proposal to improve student training to take the GRE test. This proposal discussed the benefits of bringing in SU graduate students as tutors to help undergraduates prepare for tests.
• Mertikas and Saied proposed a bill for the Thankful for Syracuse initiative, a campus-wide food drive through the Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry and the Food Bank of Central New York. The bill will be voted on next week.
• Saied met with Hradsky last week to discuss student accessibility of off-campus sidewalks. While these sidewalks are owned by private landlords, she said the city of Syracuse has agreed to look at the sidewalks and reach out to landlords whose sidewalks may not be accessible to students.

Published on October 21, 2019 at 11:29 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss