‘Safe’ Is in the Brain of the Beholder
As a child, I was a serial fort-builder. Whether it was under a desk, a piano, a basement workbench, or constructed of blankets and random furniture, I found comfort and coziness in a variety of forts I built in rooms throughout the house. Lit by flashlight or battery-powered lantern, my forts were where I (and the occasional friend or pet) spent hours engrossed in books, games, and conversation. My mother gamely joined me when invited, though I’m sure she didn’t love getting on her hands and knees and crawling beneath the canopy of old blankets I had repurposed. I found myself thinking about those forts as I read the much-discussed letter from John Ellison, dean of students at the University of Chicago, and then the many columns, letters, and comments in response to his letter. Ellison wrote a letter to welcome new first-year students, much like I did as a dean of students at the beginning of each year. His was a letter full of hope and exhortation, infused with the kind of optimism most deans of students feel at the start of the academic year. He also told students, in language that some saw as condescending, to expect to find a campus committed to free expression, not one that condones "safe spaces" where uncomfortable views can be silenced.