British University Student Union bans clapping to avoid 'triggering anxiety'
68 replies, posted
http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2018-10-02/manchester-student-union-bans-clapping-to-avoid-triggering-anxiety/
Clapping has been "banned" at University of Manchester Students’ Union events in a bid to avoid triggering anxiety and improve accessibility for students attending events.
According to a report in the student newspaper The Mancunion,students are instead encouraged to use the BSL "jazz hands" to express their support.
What.
If clapping triggers your anxiety how do you deal with the regular goings-on at a university?
We started doing this at my workplace over the summer because it caused one of our newer employee's actual pain if you clapped your hands in their presence. I can't imagine enforcing that over an entire University though, my work was fairly small.
If the student union wants to do that sure, as long as they don't force that on the rest of the university and graduation ceremonies.
I can only imagine the absolute comedy gold of a jazz hands standing ovation.
skip jazz hands and go all the way to having seizures
Having done my BMus at Glasgow I've had far too much experience with British student unions and this does not surprise me at all.
Really, though, I can understand that a small amount of people may have issues when people clap, but at the same time university is meant to be preparing you for a career in the real world, and I dunno if banning something as commonplace as clapping is that smart of an idea when it's something you'll need to get used to.
Skip jazz hands and go to awkward cough. This way no one knows if they were terrible or really good.
As someone with GAD, I can understand where they're coming from - Loud noises of any kind can be hell on Earth to cope with. This isn't a solution in the slightest, though; it's a nonsensical stopgap.
What should really be proposed is providing support and assistance with seeking treatment for those who need it so they can live normal lives outside University as well.
I don't know how viable this'd be, but alternatively/if treatment isn't helping, providing an alternative viewing method, e.g. live streaming, would go a long way.
Loud noises fire off my anxiety hardcore (to the point I've actually sprinted away from shit falling at work as a fight-or-flight reflex, like I failed a Willpower roll) but this is dumb.
Just wear noise-cancelling headphones or something.
I kind of get it, but more on the assumption that clapping is irritating.
you get carried probably
There has been a general trend of British student unions wanting to enforce more and more stuff like this. In the 3rd year of my BMus trigger warnings started to be introduced for texts that contained swear words/
I can understand wanting to apply a trigger warning for content that may include stuff like depictions of rape or whatever, but when you start censoring commonplace swear words you are doing a shit job at preparing the students you are meant to be representing.
Wait this is a "student union", does anyone have to comply to it if theyre not in the union.
The university didnt ask that themselves at least.
I'm not sure why I find this so ridiculous, like it wouldnt hurt me to do it and if it helps someone it's good in theory, but I find the idea of it stupid.
Manchester is noisey, buses full of students are noisey, halls are noisey, next door to the union is the academy where live bands play and people queue up blocking the door to the union, the student union is noisey, lecture halls are noisey (before the lecturer arrives), hell the streets are noisey with groups of students, random guys with speakers attached to their bikes, beggars and leafleters. It's like these jazz hand ovations would be the only "island of solace" you could find there.
Student Unions are typically reasonably important for people in British Unis, at least early on, or at least that was my experience.
British student unions normally have very little, if any, say of how the running of the university they are associated with. However the unions often provide a large part of the social environment of the university and if a union is particularly powerful/popular the university proper is more likely to listen to them and take into account what they want, although that doesn't mean the university has any obligation to implement anything the union wants.
you know what would give me anxiety? a room full of people doing fucking jazz hands
that's crazy to me, we don't have theses things. college is just a place for classes here, none of this college life stuff. seems like a waste of time.
Seems like an unending philosophy, like you'd have to ban bright lights because of someone getting nauseous or remove clocks because someone finds it too distracting.
It's weird that uni cultures can be so coddling when they've just gotten out of the shitstorm that is secondary/middle school.
University is as much about developing an education as it is about developing character and relationships, IMO.
I really dont need student unions to do that though, people will just make friends and interact naturaly during and between class. You dont need anything to help that, it'll just happen.
We shall now clap with our wrists.
That's fair, but I was responding to your bit about how 'college life is bullshit', or whatever. It's possible I misconstrued what you meant though.
Maybe I didnt phrase it well enough, I just dislike college bloating tuition and wasting your time with a ton of clubs and useless activites/organisations that have nothing to do with learning, making the tuition more elitist.
I like the model of college taking care of nothing outside of just managing classes, and the college social life is just naturaly hanging out with the other students, nothing wasting your time or distracting you from work, especialy if youre working towards entering very competitive industries.
This is simply feelgood nonsense. One of the few times the term 'virtue signalling' isn't just the alt-right cringing at human decency.
So you want to help students with anxiety by getting rid of clapping. Great. But what about blind students? Now you're excluding them. (Sure, deaf students can't hear clapping, but they can still see it.)
Sure, you want to reduce stress in students, that's legitimately a good cause. But as has been said, college is supposed to be about preparing you for the real world. Which has loud noises. And clapping.
Do you know one of the best ways to get over anxieties and fears? Exposure therapy. Slowly exposing yourself to more and more of something that stresses you out. Students stressed out over loud noises could start by watching from farther away / towards the edge of the group, and slowly get closer over different events. Or start off with a livestream, as has been proposed.
And start out with smaller groups, so the sound isn't quite as loud.
Just always staying away from stress doesn't work. Sure, throwing someone into the deep end doesn't work either, but neither does never even dipping your toes in the water.
Nanny State of the student union
some people like structured social activity, some people need structured social acitivity. unions and clubs are intended for these people
The real world will crush you underheel and spit in your face if you really expect it to remove "loud noises" from every aspect of your life.
Life isn't perfect, being exposed to suffering and difficulty builds up your strength to deal with it. Being sheltered like this literally only fosters an attitude of forced helplessness. There are of course people who have real, legitimate traumas that we need to accommodate for, soldiers, rape victims, etc, but if you can't deal with hearing clapping, in an area literally designed for that, you are going to struggle with basic elements of our world. I'd rather that didn't happen, so I'd rather not foster this learned helplessness.
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