U Chicago to Freshmen: Don't Expect Safe Spaces

Looking for safe spaces on campus or trigger warnings on a syllabus? Incoming students at the University of Chicago have been warned they won't find either in Hyde Park. They all received a letter recently from John Ellison, dean of students, which went beyond the usual platitudes of such letters and made several points about what he called one of Chicago's "defining characteristics," which he said was "our commitment to freedom of inquiry and expression."