Cornell Rejects Push for Trigger Warnings in Classrooms

Cornell University decided against requiring professors to provide trigger warnings before presenting offensive content and giving students the option to “opt out” without any consequences despite a previously passed measure by the Student Assembly mandating content warnings for traumatic content in the classroom.

The university’s President and Provost said the proposed resolution would impede upon academic and inquiry freedom, which are fundamental principles of the institution.

The triggering topics proposed by the students included sexual assault, child abuse, racial violence, transphobic violence, and suicidal content, among others. The students expected the ability to opt-out of any offensive material without any academic consequences.


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The demand for trigger warnings emerged as students in the country’s top universities have been advocating for free expression suppression. Two federal judges ceased accepting clerks from Stanford Law School after protests students staged against Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan’s remarks last month. Students from Columbia Law School also criticized the institution for promoting a meeting hosted by the Federalist Society chapter, featuring a visit from Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Additional students at George Mason University asked the administration to cancel Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s planned commencement speech. Academic studies also question the effectiveness of trigger warnings. According to a 2020 Harvard study, the warning labels increased anxiety and encouraged participants to view the trauma as more critical to their life story.


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Cornell University emphasized that “engaging with difficult and challenging ideas” is fundamental to education; thus, implementing content warnings in the classroom would restrict academic and speech freedom.

The President of Cornell Student Assembly stated her disagreement with the institution’s decision, saying that content warnings would not impede the freedom of speech and academic freedom principles.


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