The concept of safe space is nothing new, people usually call it home or club. I was going to jump in and say this. Basically everyone has a "safe space" that

The concept of safe space is nothing new, people usually call it home or club. I was going to jump in and say this. Basically everyone has a "safe space" that they go to every day, but students often don't, especially the freshmen in residence randomly assigned roommates. To designate a space on campus where students can go where their ideology will be respected no matter what just compensates for the fact they don't have a home that they can kick people out of. The problem is that the safe space attitude spreads to the rest of the campus, which isn't OK, but it happens because of faculty attitudes and risk of litigation, and it would happen even if no designated safe spaces existed. The way I see it, designating a safe space is a good way for universities to keep dogma out of classrooms.