If you sense anger
Well that’s awkward.
“Be careful discussing sensitive topics,” professors at the University of Houston were warned in a faculty meeting about the new “campus carry” gun policy.
An unofficial forum of professors suggested that teachers may want to “drop certain topics from your curriculum,” and “not ‘go there’ if you sense anger,” the Houston Chronicle reports.
A new Texas law will allow people to carry concealed handguns on university campuses.
So the academics should draw up a list of topics that could make a student angry, and avoid those topics in favor of other topics that have zero potential to make a student – any student – angry.
Um.
Jeffrey Villines, a Ph.D. student in the university’s English department, shared a photo of what he said is a slide from a “recent campus carry dialogue at UH, in response to faculty concerns about dangers from armed students.”
The Houston Chronicle notes that advice given at the faculty forum “echoes concerns voiced by professors across the state that allowing guns into the classroom will limit academic freedoms and inhibit discussion of sometimes touchy subjects.”
Jeff Villines argued that campus carry policies may have a chilling effect on the freedom of expression, silencing “discourse through fear of violence.”
“To be clear,” he wrote, “Step 1 of 3: Terrorism involves the silencing of discourse through fear of violence. Step 2 of 3: Open carry is advertised as a means of resisting or preventing terrorism. Step 3 of 3: Teachers advised that any problems with Open Carry can be resolved by silencing discourse.”
This has worked to destroy access to abortion in much of the US, by the way. Doctors are afraid to provide abortions, and reasonably so. If I were a doctor I would be far too cowardly to provide them.
Texas is a scary place.
Jeez. . . this is a horror. And it is disgusting and wrong headed. “Anger” from an angry student is generally not generated by a “sensitive topic.” Anger is not that rational. Unfortunately, in my experience, it is personal, directed at the individual faculty member, and it is not rational or tied to a topic raised in a course.
Guns in the university classroom. Texas is scary.
I am very glad I am no longer teaching in Texas. And everything I teach is controversial! Environmental science? Ooohhh, don’t talk about…overpopulation, global warming, the risks of cars, the problems of agriculture….the list goes on and on until all I would be allowed to do is stand there helplessly in front of the classroom and repeat “recycling is good” for an entire semester. Evolution definitely out the window.
I think even “recycling is good” would be risky.
Other sensitive subjects include attendance, grading, and anti-discrimination policies.
Knight in Sour Armor, you’re probably right. But it’s safer than talking about mass transit!
Not to mention deadlines, make-up test policies, and not accepting late work.
Oh yeah, I’ve actually had a conversation with a Libertarian about recycling where he went absolutely apoplectic. Not in that fun amusing way where you laugh and grab the popcorn way, but the other one where you sidle away and start checking the location of the exits.
I can’t imagine feeling safe in a room where people would be carrying guns. Especially where potentially divisive topics are under discussion. Even holstered guns on cops makes me feel edgy coming from a culture where there is NO open carry, civilians do not get to casually own handguns and where even police are not routinely (openly) armed.
Also: who will they most avoid angering? Probably not women. Women are not very likely to shoot up a place for having their rights challenged.
Probably not the scientifically minded. Biology students who are serious about it are disgusted when a professor speaks approvingly of creationism, but they aren’t going to kill, whereas a creationist just might kill a teacher of “evilution”.
So a student with an gun can be confident that they will have a “safe space” where they won’t get offended by having their cherished ideas and ideals challenged.
It isn’t “open carry” it’s “concealed carry”. With open carry the weapon must be in view if carried in public. That way you can see who to piss off and who not to. But with “concealed carry” you can’t piss off anybody. The difficulty of knowing what will piss off people with concealed weapons is left unaddressed so any situation is fraught with danger. With all the crazies around this cannot end well.