As a political-science professor at Central Washington University, Mathew S. Manweller has a personal stake in protecting academic freedom. When the Legislature began this year’s session, Mr. Manweller, who is also a state representative, proposed a bill calling for Washington to strongly defend free speech in two of academe’s most contentious debates, over trigger warnings and microaggressions. Throughout the nation, instructors are under pressure from students to provide them with trigger warnings ­— advance notice of instructional material that might cause them emotional distress. Meanwhile, colleges have been adopting training programs intended to discourage faculty and staff members from engaging in microaggressions, generally defined as subtle, and often unintentional, expressions of discrimination.

February 29, 2016 ・ From Chronicle of Higher Education