Dive Brief:
- President Barack Obama, a former University of Chicago law professor himself, spoke out against the coddling of college students in response to a question about Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s proposal to cut federal funding for schools with political biases.
- The Hill reports that Obama said college should be a place where a lot of different ideas have space to collide, where people can debate, test theories, and learn from each other.
- Obama pushed supporters at the town hall meeting in Des Moines, saying it’s not just those on the right like Carson who have a problem, but also those on the left who prefer to be shielded from opposing viewpoints, silencing others rather than engaging with them.
Dive Insight:
An essay in The Atlantic by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, a constitutional lawyer and social psychologist team, recently argued that college campuses are “coddling the American mind.” The idea has come up many times in recent years as schools institute trigger warning policies, asking faculty to warn students before any potentially disturbing material is discussed in class. Many students are exercising their power with protests and other actions to limit who speaks on campuses or what books are read. It is the job of administrators to engage with students and also protect a history of intellectual courage that has made many institutions of higher learning what they are today.