You’re likely familiar with trigger warnings; they’re increasingly common in media and most especially in social media. Trigger warnings can cover a broad range of topics that I will not get into here. No doubt, if you are familiar with trigger warnings, you have your own opinion on them. Some people believe they are unnecessary, others that they are vital, and others still find them a disengaging nuisance.
A professional magazine would have its own established and probably legally binding rules about the use of trigger warnings, but as for us? Well, we’re just students like you are, and so we found ourselves with a dilemma. An editor brought to our attention the importance of trigger warnings in publication and we were met then with the issue of how to handle them, where we thought they were needed, what kinds of warnings would we use, and so on.
We decided that, though some of us feel that they may take a reader “out of it,” as it were, we could not detach ourselves from the situation so much as to decide not to employ them. We want to ensure that everyone can safely enjoy this year’s magazine and feel welcomed into it, and if it takes adding a little blurb here and there about the potentially harmful content of a piece, so be it! We hope that you can see the inherent value of trigger warnings in a magazine such as this and that, regardless of whether or not they are your cup of tea, you see them for what they are: a tool that you can use. You make the choice yourself whether or not to use that tool; we merely present you with it.
So if you feel that you have been affected by any one of the pieces we have included this year, here is a list of campus resources that we have compiled for your convenience. We hope that you enjoy the magazine for what it is as well: a culmination of the talent and passion of those associated with SUNY Adirondack.
Saratoga:
Wellspring [518-587-8008] Sexual assault and Domestic Violence
Glens Falls/Queensbury:
Planned Parenthood [1-866-307-4086] Sexual Assault
Domestic Violence Project, Warren & Washington Counties Hotline [518-793-9496]
New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence [1-800-942-6906] www.nyscadv.org
New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault [518-482-4222] www.nyscasa.org
