POLL: 1/3 of millennials say ‘safe spaces’ ‘absolutely necessary’

Recent surveys show that many college students feel “less safe” in the wake of Donald Trump’s election and consider safe spaces “absolutely necessary” to the functioning of college campuses.

A LendEDU poll, for instance, asked 1,659 American college students whether they “agree with colleges campuses establishing safe spaces,” determining that 36 percent of respondents believe safe spaces “are absolutely necessary.”

[RELATED: Black UCLA students demand ‘safe spaces,’ $40 million]

Although a (very) slight plurality of the students surveyed actually answered that they think safe spaces “are completely out of touch from reality,” those students only accounted for 37 percent of all responses—solidly within the two-percent margin of error—leading LendEDU to note that America’s students are “in a virtual deadlock” over the legitimacy of safe spaces on campus.

Meanwhile, the remaining 25 percent of respondents said they are “indifferent” to the concept altogether, suggesting that they may not “even feel as strongly about the issue as the faculty and administration,” according to LendEDU.

[RELATED: Safe spaces ‘critical’ to student success, college prez says]

Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac poll reveals that millennials overwhelmingly feel unsafe under the Trump administration, a finding that could help explain the surprising amount of support for safe spaces in the LendEDU survey.

Among respondents aged 18-34, a whopping 57 percent said that “the election of Donald Trump” has made them feel “less safe,” more than triple the number who reported feeling “more safe” under the new administration, and more than double the percentage that experienced no change in feelings of security.

[RELATED: SURVEY: Majority of profs use trigger warnings]

A majority of white college graduates (54 percent) likewise consider Trump’s America “less safe,” compared to just 30 percent who feel “more safe.” Quinnipiac does not supply data for non-white college graduates, but found that 65 percent of all non-whites surveyed reported feeling “less safe” under Trump.

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