Students at Northern Arizona University (NAU) have been triggered by an incident involving ‘gender-neutral’ language, and are now demanding their entire campus become a ‘safe space.’
University president Rita Cheng wasn’t taking the bait from the snowflakes however, and delivered a response that should be recorded and replayed on campuses throughout the country.
Earlier this semester, a professor at NAU got into hot water for docking points on a student’s paper because they failed to use ‘gender-neutral’ language.
The offending word? “Mankind.”
Students have now taken this liberal professor’s lead, demanding NAU be dubbed a ‘safe space.’
“How can you promote safe spaces, if you don’t take action in situations of injustice?” one student asked.
Cheng didn’t take the path most university presidents do, kowtowing to their students demands.
Via Town Hall:
Cheng’s response was perfect, and it probably has liberals cringing.
“As a university professor, I’m not sure I have any support at all for safe space,” Cheng refuted. “I think that you, as a student, have to develop the skills to be successful in this world, and that we need to provide you with the opportunity for discourse and debate and dialogue and academic inquiry, and I’m not sure that that is correlated with the notion of safe space as I’ve seen that.”
Discourse? Debate? Dialogue?
You mean to tell me once these students head out into the real world people aren’t going to accept their demands and complaints just because they’re supposedly entitled to a ‘safe space?’
Congratulations to President Rita Cheng for refusing to raise little #snowflakes at Northern Arizona University @NAU
— Dennis Culley (@deculley) April 6, 2017
Cheng states that the students “have to develop the skills to be successful in this world,” which is exactly correct. Additionally, it is the professors who have to help them develop those skills.
Any student or professor triggered by sidewalk chalk, topless sunbathing, the First Amendment, or the use of words such as ‘mankind,’ has not developed those skills.
Cheng is right to point this out.
The students naturally responded by demanding Cheng resign.
A group called the Student Action Coalition at NAU released a statement saying “President Cheng’s answers at the forum were insufficient and if she’s not ready or willing to engage in these serious conversations and more importantly work towards solutions, then we do feel her resignation is necessary…”
Any student demanding the resignation of a university president whose goal is to develop the skills of students to succeed in the world should leave the institution. It demonstrates they are not ‘willing to engage in serious conversations’ about the reality surrounding them.
Good on you, Ms. Cheng. You are a shining example for all mankind.
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