I’m Northwestern’s president. Here’s why safe spaces for students are important.

The Washington Post ^ | 15 Jan, 2015 | Morton Schapiro

[MtnClimber]

College presidents have always received a lot of mail. But these days we get more than ever. Much of it relates to student unrest, and most of the messages are unpleasant.

Our usual practice is to thank the sender for writing and leave it at that. The combination of receiving more than 100 emails and letters a day and recognizing that the purpose of many writers is to rebuke, rather than discuss, leaves us little choice about how to respond.

But that certainly doesn’t mean we don’t think long and hard about the issues being raised. Some writers ask why our campus is so focused on how “black lives matter.” Others express a mixture of curiosity and rage about microaggressions and trigger warnings. And finally, what about those oft-criticized “safe spaces”? On this last topic, here are two stories. The first was told to me privately by another institution’s president, and the second takes place at my institution, Northwestern University.

A group of black students were having lunch together in a campus dining hall. There were a couple of empty seats, and two white students asked if they could join them. One of the black students asked why, in light of empty tables nearby. The reply was that these students wanted to stretch themselves by engaging in the kind of uncomfortable learning the college encourages. The black students politely said no. Is this really so scandalous?

[The All Knowing All Seeing Oz]

I can hear our 1st Sergeant now.

Safe Space?

Safe Space?

Yo safe space is yo foxhole, a-hole!

Start diggin!

[donna]

That empty space all you college people are trying to fill belongs to God.

Get to know him and you will all be fine.

[ConorMacNessa]

"One of the black students asked why, in light of empty tables nearby."

1. It's a free country and I'll sit wherever the Hell I damn please.

2. Martin Luther King stood for the proposition that one should be judged by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. So why are you self-segregating yourselves?

3. College is supposed to be a part of one's life where questions are asked, where the unfamiliar is to be encountered and confronted, where ideas are spun out and weighed in the balance of fair argument and discourse.

4. "Safe space?" No, a college education, at least the one I had, is the antithesis of a safe space - it is the space where ideas collide and stand or fall on their merits.

I have never had a "safe place" - nor do I need or want one. Students must confront the danger of unfamiliar ideas and customs - if they ever expect to be able to counter them.

"Safe places" are for victims, dhimmis and collaborators. We seek and embrace danger, whatever the cost.

"If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape
and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy."

[publius911]

I'm Northwestern's president. Here's why safe spaces for students are important.

Don't bother.
If it's not related directly to effecting higher education, not interested.

You weren't hired to run a daycare...

[Sivad]

OK, so various groups like to eat together...athletes...
....drama club members....band members.....agriculture
business management majors.....and so on. If any of those
groups consistently disinvited others from outside their
realm from joining them I would eventually consider
them a bunch of jerks. So much for cross cultural education and harmony.

[digger48]

"Now imagine the students were white"

[donna]

It's supposed to be intellectually challenging and unsafe,

I think that's the problem. School is supposed to teach the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of our culture.

The students can then leave school and use all they know to expand our knowledge and to grow wise from personal experience.

[The All Knowing All Seeing Oz]

Can you imagine one of these d-heads in RVN?

[publius911]

However did I survive, back in the day, without a safe space?

We were, and acted like, young adults back then. Millions of us.

The main objective then was education and independence.

Every race, sex religion and country of origin were represented. Also hundreds of Korean veterans.

San Francisco.
California.
Before the drugs.
Before the perverts.

Insanity and the great culture of losers and whiners were way beyond the horizon.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The article doesn't make it clear whether Black House is just a place to hang out on campus or a Black dormitory.

From what I remember Hillel Houses and Catholic Centers are not open 24-7. And there weren't a lot of rooms in these houses for students to just hang out. Mostly it was for meetings or events.

Opposing Black dormitories where Blacks can more completely isolate themselves from the university as a whole are not commensurate to faith-based buildings where a particular student might go for one or two hours a day (or week) at most.

Also, most people are talking about designated safe spaces not two seats at a table that somehow magically transformed themselves into a "safe space" because the bigoted Black students didn't want whitey sitting next to them.

[Kudsman]

Put them in combat boots. Strap on a 70 lb rucksack. 10 mile forced march double time. Then we he/she gets done, they can scrub the head floors with a toothbrush. That sounds pretty safe.

[ConorMacNessa]

Actually, I saw a couple of rare birds in 'Nam - they did not last long.

"If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape
and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy."

[RightGeek]

[publius911]

We are raising a nation of uneducated wimps.

Not only uneducated, but educatable!

[FlingWingFlyer]

Thank you for sharing that with us Morty. You can go back to your safe place now and count your money.

[allendale]

Amusing that this hypocrite is so concerned that his students may hear “offensive speech” but he sends his student mercenaries onto the football field knowing that they will suffer lifelong brain and orthopedic injuries.

[clamper1797]

I’m Northwestern president and I’m an abject moron

[rlmorel]

I read this, and if it wasn’t so blisteringly pathetic and frightening (for the outlook of our nation) it would be hilariously funny.

Thing is, if this had been reversed, and there were a group of white students having lunch and a couple of black students came up and received the same response, this would show up on the front page of every newspaper and the opening 10 minutes of the nightly news shows.

And it would be characterized as racism.

Additionally, this entire thing of “safe spaces”, “micro aggression” and all that other liberal crap is cultivating an entire crop of men and women who, when they have to encounter a real threat, are going to wilt and cringe. I always felt the military would be able to eradicate that in recruits, but now...I have serious concerns. The military seems far more preoccupied with new utilities combinations for pregnant women than they do with warfare.

I was visiting Dover AFB recently, and I walked past a restroom, and it had a “Shelter In Place” sign on the door. I didn’t know what that was, and when I found out, the mental image of a bunch of our military cowering in a bathroom trying to avoid a person with a gun just repelled me.

What has happened to our country, in our lifetimes? There was a time when I thought it was simple decline, but that ship sailed a long time ago. I have long thought there is a deliberate effort to corrode this country from within.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

White, liberal elitists like this guy are these reason I'm not a liberal. These are the condescending a-holes that treat people who aren't white (like myself) like we are stupid children. It is the worst form of racism. Man, this stuff pisses me off.

[Talisker]

Can you imagine asking for “safe space” in BCT at Ft. Benning, or RVN?

A former DI, retired Sergeant major, told me that recruits can now pull a "timeout card" if they feel too much stress while being disciplined in Basic, and then they get to go to a "safe space" to calm down, and that then restrictive protocols go into effect towards them that have to be followed by the DI.

I kid you not.