Warning: offensive language.
A Facebook status posted by a member of the executive team of the Ryerson Marketing Association (RMA) caused controversy online Thursday.
The status, which was posted by Dan Petz, the RMA’s vice-president of corporate relations, included a rant about “fascist practices disguised as ‘safe spaces.’”
Petz, a third-year commerce student, wrote, “Please if you need a safe space go home, you can be safe there. I am growing sick of this childish nonsense and I didn’t pay thousands of dollars to be coddled like a little bitch. I am not going to take it anymore, and neither should you.”
Screenshots of the status were shared on Facebook, with students expressing concerns over Petz’s inflammatory comments.
Petz, who currently sits on the course unions committee at the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU), also ran for a seat on the Ryerson senate this month as the Ted Rogers School of Management representative.
John Sullivan, a third-year RTA school of media student, shared Petz’s status on his own Facebook page, saying that he was worried that an elected representative of a Ryerson course union was denouncing the need for safe spaces on campus.
“If someone has a shitty opinion, that’s fine. But if someone has that shitty opinion as they’re actively trying to get more involved in student life and they express that opinion in ways that aren’t conducive to creating a better environment for students, then that’s when I kind of go, ‘Well hey, if this person is supposed to be a representative of the school, then I’m not really comfortable with that,’” Sullivan said.
Rabia Idrees, the current Ryerson Students’ Union vice-president equity, said that it is “easy for somebody who has never had the need for safe spaces to say that they aren’t necessary.
“For somebody like me, who is racialized and a woman, if I saw something like this in the classroom, and the majority of people had the same kind of mindset, that wouldn’t be a safe space for me,” Idrees said. “That would affect my own learning ability.
“He has not really thought out how this affects all of the other people who are not male, not white, not in a business program and don’t see the world in numbers.”
Alyson Rogers, co-founder of the Ryerson Feminist Collective, said that she finds it “extremely concerning that he is a representative of Ryerson students.”
“If (Petz) is someone who feels he can walk out in the world and feel safe and not have any concerns about his safety, then that’s great, but not everybody has that luxury,” she said.
“That’s actually a huge privilege to have. I think there needs to be some understanding that not everybody has that, so there is a real need for safe spaces on campus,” Rogers said. “A comment like this is extremely insensitive and only takes into account his lived experiences and discounts those of everybody else on this campus.”
The RMA distanced itself from Petz after his comments began to pick up traction on social media, saying in a statement on its Facebook page that the opinions and political views of its team members “are not necessarily in line with that of the (RMA) as an organization.”
Ryerson currently has six equity service centres on campus sponsored by the RSU, including the Racialized Students Collective, RyeAccess, the Centre for Women and Trans People, the Trans Collective, the Good Food Centre and RyePride. As well, the Aboriginal Multipurpose Student Space is a dedicated safe space for aboriginal students.
Petz did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Dylan is a fourth-year journalism student and one of The Ryersonian's news editors.
101 comments
What did he say that was wrong? Your home is your safe space. The real world doesn’t work like that. You go to university to broaden your horizons, which can only happen when your views are challenged.
We’ve bred a generation of entitled victims who aren’t happy unless they have something to be unhappy about.
Most rational people haven’t needed a safe space since graduating kindergarten. We are actively making it more difficult for our young generations to succeed in life.
This is poorly written and quite hypocritical. It scares me to see this sort of bigotry coming out of Ryerson. Why should this man’s skin color, ethnicity and program effect whether or not he has a right to speak out against a policy that will affect him. I’m both sickened and fearful for my future seeing this degree of hypocrisy coming out of our universities.
Do you know who else needs “safe spaces” free of disagreeable opinions?
North Korean dictators, that’s who.
Fire them all, expel the snowflake grievance junkies , raze the buildings to the ground, and start fresh.
I support Petz. He has a right to free expression, and in this case he is right. So-called “safe spaces” are ridiculous. All of us are created equal. That doesn’t mean life has to be fair or outcomes have to be equal. And to coddle university students into thinking the world is “safe” is ridiculous. I cannot believe we are having these conversations when people are being blown to bit in Brussels because they are the wrong religion…
I’m with Dan Petz. Just being born means you’re no longer in a “safe space” ~ decreasingly so, however, because of abortion. Adult-safe-space-toddlers need to get a grip. All of us are called to live with integrity and stand our ground, creating our own “safe space.” None of us should demand that other people make a safe space for us ~ always open to interpretation ~ or to not offend us. Crybullies need to stop bullying people whose ideas differ from theirs, as though they’re the centre of the universe. They’re not. They need to grow the hell up and understand that it’s all too often THEY who create “unsafe” spaces for others, not the other way around. Life doesn’t promise or guarantee anyone “a safe space.” Life is full of conflict and disagreement, IOW full of diversity, a concept many of these safe-space-advocates say they value. There is nothing open or tolerant about demands for safe spaces. Adults committed to freedom of speech, which means ALL speech not just speech one agrees with, understand this.
There’s a nice safe place for all of the young, easily offended, thin-skinned little adult age, child-like uni students. Those are the ones that haven’t realized that they have entered the REAL WORLD.
Its called a crib. You’re welcome
Now let me see. On the one hand some students want a ‘safe space’ where they can live their life without conflict. Then I read that the student union has banned a pro life club. Wow way to shoot yourself in the foot and the head at the same time.
It is encouraging to me that there still are students like Mr. Petz who are willing to stand up against the madness overtaking our university campuses these days. The SJWs have been increasingly successful in shutting down free speech at our Universities, and seem hell-bent on turning the next generation into useless pieces of spun glass, too fragile to exist in the real world. Bubblewrap generation indeed.
Well, Ryerson isn’t a real university anyway. It is a child care institution.
“For somebody like me, who is racialized and a woman, if I saw something like this in the classroom, and the majority of people had the same kind of mindset, that wouldn’t be a safe space for me,” Idrees said. “That would affect my own learning ability.”
Then you are an emotional infant that is 100% proving Mr. Petz’s point. Clearly, you are not yet mentally or emotionally mature enough to handle the intellectual challenges the academy is supposed to provide, let alone the far harsher challenges and realities you will face in the real world.
This is great, your reaction to his comment is LITERALLY what I think he’s talking about, why so much crying?
Dan Petz, rock on!
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Every safe space needs to be repurposed; on the door someone can tape the above children’s rhyme, printed on tear off tabs.
If you need a safe space as an adult you have been ill-prepared for the real world. I’d wager Mr. Petz has a bright future ahead of him. I’d also wager his detractors will be overwhelmed when the time comes to leave behind group hugs with the mollycoddled whiners trying to silence Mr Petz’s opinion.
It is interesting how radical feminists and the “racialized” rely on their sense of their own weakness rather than strength in responding to even the mildest counter arguments. Which will work well in the cotton lined box of a university but less well in most real world situations post grad. Learning how to argue, to defend your position rather than demanding safe spaces where dissent is prohibited on the grounds it might hurt feelings, is a step on the way to adulthood. It used to be taken somewhere between grade one and grade three, now, for certain protected classes, it need not be taken at all. Which, of course means that “racialized” or “feminist” have been rendered synonyms for infantile. Too bad.
Lol.
‘Why should this man’s skin color, ethnicity and program effect whether or not he has a right to speak out against a policy that will affect him.’
-The policy doesn’t affect him whatsoever. He’s just upset he’s not included.
‘I cannot believe we are having these conversations when people are being blown to bit in Brussels because they are the wrong religion…’
-Oh, lovely, the ‘starving kids in Africa’ defense. Try again.
‘He has a right to free expression, and in this case he is right.’
-Everyone else has a right to free expression too, but somehow you’d prefer everyone shut up but the guy who agrees with you.
‘They need to grow the hell up and understand that it’s all too often THEY who create “unsafe” spaces for others, not the other way around. ‘
-So by that logic asking for a space where women can interact with solely other women is literally creating ‘unsafe spaces for men’. Try again.
‘We’ve bred a generation of entitled victims who aren’t happy unless they have something to be unhappy about.’
-Yet you’re an unhappy victim here whining in a comments section that this poor white man was disagreed with after he whined like an unhappy victim on Facebook.
‘Fire them all, expel the snowflake grievance junkies , raze the buildings to the ground, and start fresh.’
-Oh, Kate, the irony of you wishing death on people who are asking for spaces where they can be free of people like you. I’m not sure if you realize just how much you proved their point here.
‘All of us are created equal. That doesn’t mean life has to be fair or outcomes have to be equal.’
-That’s very easy for you to say. Think real hard as to why.
“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” – George Orwell
Y’all whine about how ‘we’re all created equal’ and that disenfranchised people ought to shut up, but you know deep down you’d never trade places with them, as ‘equal’ as you might be. You absolutely know.
So petz is the only real adult worth hiring from your worthless school?
So let’s see: we have a hatchet job of a newspaper article about a Ry student’s personal Facebook post, a social media dogpiling, the idle brain farts of racial and sexual grievance mongers and their white knight enablers uncritically repeated without comment, and a list of all the identity groups with their own pillow-filled playpens who are shocked, SHOCKED to encounter different ideas at a university.
How ironic that one person in this sordid swamp of a story who actually needs a safe space for his ideas to be heard is the one loudly insisting he doesn’t want one.
Directions to your safe space.
Find your home on a map.
Go there now.
Find your bedroom.
Go to your bed.
Curl up under the sheets, grab your teddy, put your soother in your mouth and have a good cry.
When you’re ready to be an adult again the rest of the world will already be there.
You have some catching up to do, Snowflake.
These students see the world as filled with traumatized victims and universities as giant therapy sessions where disagreeable views must not allowed to intrude lest the patients — ur, students — suffer a relapse.
The irony is that the vast majority of these students — of every gender, race, and sexual preference — are amongst the most historically privileged of people.
Petz is right; time to grow up.
I salute Mr. Petz, saying what the majority of people are thinking. I graduated from Ryerson in 1987. At that time, students were expected to act like adults. I went to school with all races and cultures, and we all got by just fine without the current fascistic “safe space” crap.
Grow up children, or go back to mommy and daddy’s house where you will be safe from taking responsibility for your life choices. Oh, and let’s be honest: the concept of being in the minority is rapidly catching up for “white people”. Living in Canada as a non-white has to be the safest place on the entire planet.
You crybullies need to grow up and tell your lefty profs to deposit this racist “racialist theory” where it belongs.
This a powerful message from Dan Petz. We clearly live in a world of terror and lack of safety; why should we be able to lean on others for safety? It’s time for people to grow up and realize they need to take care of themselves; especially in the state of our current society.
Finally! Someone presents a reasonable perspective from within the student body. While our kids are going to.school to learn life skills like putting on a condom (hint: it’s not that difficult)and French kiss, other countries are teaching their kids REAL life skills. Like what happens when there are no jobs in your town or country. And no safe spaces.either. so, the message is; suck it up! If you can’t learn because you don’t have an safe space, then you can’t learn. And that says more.about you than Dan Petz.
Want a safe space, stay home. You don’t want to be offended, wear ear plugs. Frankly the safe space crowd scare me, their over emotive drivel should not be welcomed in adult spaces. Perhaps adult daycare is more to their liking.
If you don’t feel safe don’t go outside, or book a therapist. Racialized females need to find their own safe space and leave everyone else alone. How about “Colored Female Safe University’, off in a safe area where you can all be ignored.
Just going to leave a comment here in support for Dan. Your opinion is not “shitty” and why does this Sullivan person get to decide what constitutes a better environment at Ryerson.
Kate’s right–time for a reboot. Go Petz!
100 percent agreement with Mr. Petz. If you’re not ready for the adult world, stay home with your mother your bankey and your soother. Otherwise, shut up and grow up.
Nothing gets you in trouble faster than the truth. The world is not a safe place. Get used to it and thrive anyway.
“In times of universal deceit, speaking truth is the most radical and dangerous thing you can do.” Can’t recall at the moment who I am paraphrasing; but they used to teach that kind of stuff in schools. Dan Petz obviously learned common sense somewhere; clearly that somewhere wasn’t Ryerson.
I guess I finally understand why everyone wants free higher ed; it’s not worth paying for. Still don’t understand why they still want it though…
Kate, Aaron, Dan Petz, many others all correct.
Was this article written as a joke lol?
Have our students really become so weak, whiny and pathetic? Do you get to choose which free speech you accept, and which “free speech” you ban?
The future looks grim.
The same on the so called leadership of these academic institutions that permits this kind of nonsense.
Incredible how our learning institutions have been flooded with weenies whiners and wingnuts that have no concept of real life or even basic reality. The demand to make the entire university a “safe space” from opposing viewpoints shows that mental illness is in control and the inmates have taken over the asylum. The real question should be,………what are these people good for when and if they ever graduate ? I like Kate’s last line. It seems like the only logical option.
I have a question for the author. Did you actually attempt to reach him? I feel like you didn’t even try. Maybe, you sent him a facebook message and then published this 2 minutes later.
In other words you are prepared to work for CNN, MSNBC and Fox!
Hey! I did. The story was brought to our attention 12 hours before it was published, and I reached out to him within an hour of first reading the status. I contacted him through email, Facebook and Twitter, and called the RMA’s number, and received no response via any of those until Dan messaged me on Facebook an hour ago.
Note to self.
Resume mention edumuckation at Ryerson?
Bin 13.
As basic human interactions are beyond the skill set expected at this institution, why would I want to endanger my current productivity by hiring any such product.
However I am sure CBC will take some more UNPAID interns.
“Oh, Kate, the irony of you wishing death on people who are asking for spaces…”
This is outright slander. She said no such thing and you know it, you smarmy, mendacious adolescent.
Way to go Dan. This world is full of conflict, they are no longer in grade 4 but in a place of “higher” learning. Part of learning is dealing with conflict, discussing items with people that disagree with you. Time to grow up and understand how the real world works.
What is a safe space and why are safe spaces needed at a university?
He is talking like a mature adult. If the truth hurts your feelings or makes you feel unsafe then you should, nay must, go home and hide under your bed in your mother’s basement.
I support Mr. Petz – he is right in what he says! Pity that a bunch of children masquerading as adults who believe in “safe spaces” to express their echo chamber opinions would seek to deny this man his right to his opinion. At least they have proven him to be right by showing their true colours!
Shame on these bullies! SHAME!
I thought that pretty much all university and college students were at least 18. That makes them adults doesn’t it? So why are they acting like a bunch of frightened elementary students.
When our enemies in the muslims world and elsewhere, read this kind of crap … and it’s popping up everywhere these days as the pansy generation hits post secondary .. well that assures them that there will be little or no resistance from our young people.
Selling their souls for imaginary security. They make me puke.
Hmmm. This university environment sounds an awful lot like those in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
Not much chance these little lefty children would read the book, but if they did they would surely identify themselves as the future Orren Boyle’s, Cuffy Meigs, Wesley Mouches etc.
Here’s hoping there is a Dagny Taggart or two in this hellhole called an institution of higher learning that Mr. Petz might find a date.
My comment is being moderated! Given mine was based on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and supportive of Mr. Petz I can only hope that the word police didn’t learn to read in public school.
Be grateful for Dan Petz – life isnt always fair, so grow up and get your act together. SJW is about denying free speech, shutting opposing views down. Writing from South America I can only smile: the world isnt waiting for you, SJWs, and you will know soon.
Again: grow up, try to learn at least something beyond professional victimhood. With all your feelings re being a victim: you are not, you, SJWs, are amongst the most privilged persons on this planet. Get used to opposing opinions, learn to discuss and do something useful with your life.
It would be more reassuring if “higher education” in Canada involved an academic population that genuinely reflected viewpoint diversity. But here, as in the US and much of Europe, what passes for “academic freedom” is really conformity to leftist cant enforced through hiring and admissions policies. If the hiring and admission policies of Canadian universities and colleges were miraculously changed so that a diverse set of views were the rule and not the exception, those who hold leftist thoughts would have to justify them in a true marketplace of ideas. But the sad truth is that we have no such thing. And the university and college administrations who are generally drawn from the same “couldn’t make it in the real world” bunch become enforcers of oppression by steamrollering genuine diversity of expression.
“The same on the so called leadership of these academic institutions that permits this kind of nonsense.”
Amen on that, TJ Speller. Our kids’ babysitters did a better job of raising adults than the collection of bedwetters that infest the offices of our post-secondary institutions.
Burns comes to mind…something about a mouse.
Yeah, sure: try demanding a “safe space” for yourself and your needs, from your real-world, private sector employer and see how that works out for you.
And I see the fourth most popular article on this website from the sidebar on this page is from 2014, with the headline “Ryerson finishes last in QS rankings (again)”. You see, for you Ryerson grads, that type of sh#tty ranking is more of a real-world problem.
Safe spaces; a crib, a playpen, a baby car seat, a baby-proofed house. A baby outgrows these as he/she learns to navigate his/her world with increasing independence. That is, until they arrive at university and the professors won’t ferberise the babies, and sometimes encourage the relentless boo-hooing.
I see a tidal wave of mentally struggling adults in the near future as they leave their expensive second babyhood and hit the real world where the person-as-unsafe-victim gets eaten up by the real world.
Can we get these poor babies some big people underpants and move them out of their Pampers? As a favour to taxpayers and the grown ups who thought the whining of children ended at about 20.
College is intended to prepare students for life and a career, and not to regress to grade school.
If you rely on safe spaces, you are not ready to join the adults of the world.
Higher learning? Has anyone thought of a world run by these lost human beings after they graduate from their safe spaces? I’m glad someone has the balls to call a spade a spade.
We are already inundated with health and safety etc etc… all to act in a way that supports what kids growing up haven’t been taught common sense and the fact life isn’t fair. Instead ,blind tolerance is held up like a beacon as some form of intellectual achievement, along with political correctness.
I can’t imagine the annual safety meetings at work to somehow brainwash employees about making all spaces safe for the little snowflakes.
Thanks for speaking your mind Mr.Petz.
Your right!
Everything the left controls turns to shit. Why would higher education be any different?
And would the delicate snowflakes complaining about Dylan advocate to have a safe space available for these people?
“http://ryersonian.ca/ryerson-students-union-bans-pro-life-club/”
Didn’t think so.
Attn: Dan Petz… The Ontario PCs need a leader who hasn’t been neutered. Sounds like you’re the man for the job! Mad props.
We have truly become a pathetic generation when we need a safe space because somebody holds opinions and views different than we do. If we can’t converse and debate with people who have different views than we do we truly do need to go home. When did Ryerson become about group think and speak rather than about open dialogue that challenges us to think critically rather than calling for mommy to protect and coddle us.
My message must have been deleted. Used some trigger words, like weenies, whiners and wingnuts. Safe room might have been filled to capacity. May never know.
I’m guessing these “safe spacers” will be pretty much unemployable by the time they graduate from Ryerson daycare. See you at Starbucks future coffee baristas!
Good for Dan for telling it the way it is.
Orwell would know what to make of all this “safe space” and microraggression nonsense.
Universities seem to have become a place to stupefy our students, not broaden their horizons.
Good on Dan to fight back against the vile, narrow minded, juvenile, attention seeking bigots who are trying to stifle free speech and destroy basic democratic rights just so their “feelings” won’t be hurt.
The delicate little flowers trying to shut him up better star getting some psychological counselling now to get them started on their growing up. Life will be very difficult if these fragile little egos don’t evolve past the two year old level that are stuck at.
I think people are missing the point here. Paradigms are changing. It’s not as simple as saying, “hush, deal with how cruel the ‘real’ world is, like an adult” – why would ANY person accept that? It’s very insensitive and ignorant. Someone from a privileged group made a shitty statement… look up the word intersectionality and maybe you will understand.
With all due respect, I think that it is you who are missing the point. Paradigms and models mean squat if they do not adequately reflect reality. The reality is that some people are assholes, and there will always be assholes in the world. Those assholes may be you, me and/or someone else. On top of that, there will always be someone whose opinion differs from our own. Always.
There are exactly two types of responses to those basic facts: learn how to deal with it or not. Of those two types, not learning how to deal with it is the least productive. When people demand “safe spaces” outside of their homes, they are refusing to engage; they are hiding and “not dealing with it”. When a university gives in to those adult-by-age babies, and provides the “safe-space” they are doing not only a disservice to the adult-by-age babies, but they are also doing a disservice to the students and alumni who deem such spaces unworthy of adults, for they will be (fairly or not) tarnished by their brush.
That is the plain truth. It may seem insensitive. It may seem ignorant. But reality does not care about either of those. If you don’t believe me, there is a simple experiment that can be tried: go out into the middle of the wilderness and shout at the land of its insensitivity and ignorance until either your situation changes, or you do.
I am aware that assholes exist and dealing with them is something we do or do not do on a daily basis. I was asserting that people should not be hushed, however, for trying to combat the asshole. I am partial to RU’s policies on “safe-space” environments though, so that is my bias.
In this instance, it was very controversial that Petz stated his opinion the way that he expressed it, especially as a potential leader. As a potential leader to a diverse body of students, it would have been critical, in my opinion, and for his own benefit, to ensure his statements were of good taste and respectful but I suppose ones ego overshadows this, especially on a Facebook status.
In saying this, perhaps it did benefit him and he gained the follow base he desired, but as for me, I would not be satisfied with a leader who makes a statement in the manner he did. Hold a discussion on campus, get a debate and panel going. There were many ways he could have went about discussing his concerns.
As an employer, I do online background checks of any potential new hires. If I saw one whiny post about needing to be protected from someone holding a differing opinion, that person would be permanently banned from working for any company I own.
The world needs people with a spine and critical thinking skills, not cry-bully, professional victims. If the victim class’ intellectual arguments held any merit, they could withstand vigorous debate, not have to silence dissent in order to feel safe.
Some of my best friends hold vastly different political views than I do. Guess what, that is okay and I do not have to take away their freedom of speech to make my case on the issues. Not only that, we can continue to hold diametrically opposing beliefs and still respect each other and be friends. The cry-bullies can’t seem to do that, they constantly have to “other” people who do not agree with them.
I support Mr Petz, who seems to be one of the adults in the student body, as opposed to the perpetually offended children calling their mommy (the administration) because somebody told them they didn’t like the colour of crayon they were colouring with that day. (It’s a metaphor.)
Oh cry-babies, check your privilege, because your mommy isn’t always going to be there to kiss your boo-boos and wipe your ass and you should not expect the rest of the world to give a damn if your precious feelings get hurt.
You must live one hell of a protected privileged life to have any sort of expectation that your hurt feelings are of any consequence at all.
As an employer I pay attention to where people have been educated as well as their ‘real world’ experience.
Ryerson appears to be yet another ‘institution’ which will arouse caution when seen on a resume. What has become of young adults? For too long you’ve been told you’re somehow ‘special’ – and you’ve now translated the word into meaning you’re a ‘fragile’ and ‘incompetent’ adult.
Way to go.
I must say, as a racial minority, I must agree with Mr. Petz. The world is a very dangerous place, and these “safe space” are trying to mask that reality. There are no “safe spaces” in the real world. Seeing everyone blaming society for their problems, as if society owes them anything. Put your head down, work hard and you will achieve success. No excuses!
This man has balls! Very rare! Keep speaking the truth!
And the alumni telemarketers wonder why I won’t give them any money.
Rye high used to be about mixing practical skills with theory.
Now they are about providing safe spaces for bedwetters.
How do these tracing-paper-thin skinned adult babies plan to function in the so called “real world” once they’ve graduated and entered the work force? I certainly would not hire anyone who expressed the need for a “safe space” free of any viewpoints that they do not share, as this is reflective of a childish, weak-minded individual. Shame on this publication for trying to publicly crucify someone for a personal world view they hold.
Yep. Outing someone’s facebook post through the use of some silly university rag. That is quite an accomplishment, I must say. What was that about academic institutions? Something about the politics being so vicious because the stakes are so low… and in this case, meaningless. This article certainly supports that contention.
I’d give this young man a job in a heart beat!
We were looking for a technician recently and one of the respondents asked if he would get an expense account and if “he got to stay in hotels”… He was quite upset when we told him he wasn’t qualified, based not only on lack of experience but also on his very immature expectations.
Young men of fortitude and conviction, with smarts and talent, are becoming extremely rare. If this world doesn’t implode because of marxist ideologies, he will do very well in life…
Good for Petz. He is someone one could employ to deal with the and tumble of the real world. Where people say things that may offend you all the time.
And in the real world there are no safe spaces. Life is like that.
Guess these silly people would not handle an interview in my department. We like to see what people are made of, how they handle pressure. We don’t hire babies, but adults. We pay adults well.
So it looks like Petz will do well. These other twits no so much.
It’s like watching your super hero wimp completely out when a tiny little mouse runs by. What is wrong with universities now? How can you be tomorrows leaders, movers and shakers when you practice to physically, literally physically hide from your fears as the master plan when ideas, thoughts and words that you don’t like are ‘present’? Or resort to violence and dehumanizing acts of people pilloried by the media and to prevent certain guest speakers or others on campus is concerning to see. Isn’t this like retarding your natural emotional growth that should happen at this age by learning to face your fears, different ideas? Hear and discuss both sides of the debate? Where did all that fairness and equality go?
How isn’t this fascism?
Me? I’m trying to figure out what “is racialized and a woman” means. I am also confused as to how Ms Idrees is able to determine exactly WHAT the exact mind-set of the majority in her class is. Then, ultimately, how do ANY of those have ANYTHING to do with HER ability to learn? Is logic now optional at university?
I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!
Why weren’t these child/adults weaned?
Shouldn’t parents wean their children a few years before turning them loose on the adult world?
Go Dan Petz! As an alumni of the 80’s, I am thoroughly disturbed by this ‘safe space’ idiology. It actually scares me. People who feel the need to cocoon themselves with pseudo like-minded people instead of standing up for themselves in public, will be shocked into reality when out in the real world. University is for growing up, learning about the real world and figuring out how to work with others who may not share your views. Like when you go to look for a job and have to interact with real people in real situations. Is this the new ‘anarchy’?
I don’t understand why people having a safe space, where they can meet with other people in similar situations to their own and find support, has ANY effect on Petz or any of the people who have commented in support of this idiot! If you don’t feel the need to have a safe space, GREAT, don’t fucking go to one, but how dare any of you try and take away something that obviously helps the students that attend!
You should all be SUPPORTIVE of the people you go to school with, which includes the students who feel the need for a place that they can feel safe. A post like his comment is the exact reason people do not feel safe. He is intentionally trying to shame every person who has attended one of these groups, even though they should feel no shame at all. Every student in this country has the right to feel safe in their home, their town/city, and their school and if this is the way people find comfort, then let them.
The fact that people of different races, sexualities and genders are intentionally targeted, harassed, beaten and sometimes killed because of something they can’t change is a pretty good reason to have these safe spaces and just because you haven’t personally experienced discrimination or harassment does not mean it doesn’t exist for those around you.
You’re all preaching that these students just whine and complain about things, yet what are all of you doing? Whining and complaining about something that has NO effect on you, whereas being tormented for any of the reasons I listed above, does have a direct effect on those people.
Thank you Dylan Bell for sharing this. Dan Petz is nothing but a whining, complaining little boy who wants attention. The people using these safe spaces are NOT the ones that need to “grow up”; the ones that choose to belittle other people for trying to find comfort and support are.
The situation here R is that not only don’t you understand a major impediment to your future, you and like minded thinkers are the actual problem. The real world (trigger warning coming up) really doesn’t give a rats ass about your inner feelings, white privilege or the echo chamber that confirms your belief. The real world wants value for the money you receive from your employer. From what you’ve stated so far, I suggest you practice a fetal position for your first job interview, and just tell them where you graduated. I’m sure they’ll understand.
“Thank you Dylan Bell for sharing this. Dan Petz is nothing but a whining, complaining little boy who wants attention. The people using these safe spaces are NOT the ones that need to “grow up”; the ones that choose to belittle other people for trying to find comfort and support are.”
R, please tell me you can detect the irony of this statement. If you cannot, you need to beg and safe-space your way into a full refund of whatever Ryerson stole from you, because you have been ripped off.
If you were 3, your “safe space” would be a play school room with a gate that locked from the outside. Be careful how you might be getting trapped in your adult safe space.
This is just more SJW bullying.
Grow up.
If you can’t handle diversity of thought why are you in college?
Why are you bullying anyone who doesn’t share your exact same mindset?
Go back home and hide in your mother’s skirts if you aren’t prepared to be an adult.
Give the poor taxpayer’s a break as well, if anyone needs a safe place it is the taxpayers who need a place to hide from this tax funded bullying and idiocy.
Can anyone make the case that trying to educate these poor delicate bullying snowflakes is anything but a complete waste of time and money?
They don’t even understand the basic concept of trying to learn or expand their knowledge.
They are just a pack of simple minded thugs.
The only safe space a campus should be is one free of physical harm. Anything else is counterintuitive and just perpetuates the stereotype our generation holds as being oversensitive, weak and entitled. Our universities are meant to introduce us to the real world and learn to face, deal with and ultimately change its realities – not shield us from them. As everyone else said, if you want a safe space go home and stay there.
Poor, biased ‘journalism’.
political correctness is the new fascism.
I always thought University was a place to prepare people for “the real world” of society and the workforce. To broaden viewpoints and expose “learners” to contrary thinking. It appears to have evolve into something that is completely the opposite of this. Maybe now is the time to stop supporting these institutions with tax dollars as they no longer are producing strong, functional members of society. If the snowflakes want to be safe in their bubble of unreality let them (or more likely their parents) pay for it all themselves.
Petz is correct, time for the whining SJW’s to grow up. Home is your safe space. People don’t spend thousands on an education only to be hobbled by these insecure whiners. If they cannot handle adult spaces maybe they should go back to the crib in the basement.
Enough with them.
Most safe placers will chuckle at themselves latter in life,I hope.
When I look at so many universities today I see a whole lot of goosestepping going on.
1944 – 18 year olds storm beaches and jump out of airplanes willingly facing certain death to defend the free world.
2016 – 18 year olds need safe spaces to hide in because words hurt.
If you are going to live like you are in a “My Little Pony” world expect to treated as such.
I attended Ryerson in the Journalism program 50 years ago, when it was Ryerson Technical Institute. At that time, it was populated with real people – both students and faculty, not the pussies that now appear to be the majority.
Good for Petz, expressing the truth. Suck it up, buttercups.
After reading the comment section, I’m glad there is some hope for this school.
GO PETZ!
As an employer, the plainspoken, brutally honest characteristics Petz displays are what I look for in a candidate! 100% would hire.
Keep fighting the good fight Petz
I am so confused by this guy and the all the people who have commented on this article. What is wrong with having safe spaces? How does gaf about other people’s feelings affect you negatively? How is comparing our behaviour in the past a justification for how we should behave in the present? Why aren’t we all trying to better society and our communities instead of saying things were better in the past? Things were not better in the past. We are constantly improving and bettering our lives and our communities and thats why living in North America is so great. Becoming better is the only way we will all survive. Being intolerant and small-minded is a path to desolation.
Safe spaces are less about coddling the perpetually injured and more about controlling other people. It’s like a nice little shelter from which you can lob bombs all while claiming to be the injured party. They are really tools of intimidation and the more leftist sheep they can pack into them, the more little dependent soldiers they create.
“Racialized” eh? What did you expect in a multicultural country? Many thanks to Pierre.
This is the educational institution that employed Gerald Hannon. Hannon gained fame as a result of references to pedophilia in his article Men Loving Boys Loving Men (1977), published in the now-defunct The Body Politic. Hannon was acquitted of obscenity charges laid in connection with the article. He was later the subject of media controversy in 1995, when several mainstream journalists attacked Ryerson University for employing him as a journalism instructor while he was simultaneously, and openly, working as a male prostitute.
Silence All Free Expression — Save Progressivist-Approved Conforming Exchanges
Remember kids, leftist ideology needs as many perpetual children as they can muster. If someone is trying to make you fearful, they are trying to control you.
I support Dan Petz and also believe safe spaces are a terrible idea.
In fact, many psychologists disagree with the approach as they believe it only further limits people’s ability to cope and adapt to real life situations. So when we see these adult students acting like hysterical children, many times it’s precisely due to the prolonged cocoon of shelter such as safe spaces that prevents them from being able to function properly. People don’t want to ban these spaces out of malice or ignorance, but because we (of all genders, orientations, and races), but because the evidence doesn’t support their claims and desires.
I wonder if the author of this article realizes that all of the comments are in support of the person he’s insulting. as a former Ryerson alumni I’m deeply ashamed and frankly embarrassed
Why do all the comments sound like they were written by the same person? Just because you post the same opinion under different names, doesn’t make it any more convincing.
Comments are closed.