Professors at many Ivy League universities canceled classes the day after the election — some because they were unhappy that Donald Trump won, and others because they believed that students needed to “recover” from the election. The Harvard Crimson reports that “Courses such as Sociology 1156: ‘Statistics for Social Sciences’ and Applied Math 22a: ‘Solving and Optimizing,’ as well as several General Education courses — 1074: ‘The Ancient Greek Hero’ and 1111: ‘Popular Culture and Modern China’ among them — canceled their Wednesday classes, made attendance optional, or extended assignment deadlines.” Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana told students to “let yourself feel a bunch of emotions about how this is going to impact us in the future, and listen to other people and how they feel about it too.”
The New York Post reported that “lefty professors at Barnard and Columbia” canceled class in messages that were “peppered with language suggesting their pupils had just been through a tragedy in the wake of former Republican President Donald Trump’s historic defeat of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris at the polls Tuesday.”
Columbia adjunct professor Michelle Greene, who served on the Obama administration’s White House Council on Women and Girls — announced she was canceling class because it would be “tone deaf” to hold class after an event like Trump’s election. “I have decided to cancel our class today. The current events would make it difficult to concentrate on factorial ANOVA, and although I had planned an alternative lecture on modern polling methods and their blind spots, it feels a bit tone-deaf to deliver it today,” Greene wrote.
Barnard professor Amelia Simone Herbert cut short her “Race, Space and Urban Schools” class, saying that “processing the results of a national election can be heavy and having space to breathe and go a bit slower is vital.”
Professors sent notes to students alerting them that they did not need to attend class the day after the election, some expressing worry that the election results would make it “difficult to concentrate.”
Barnard associate professor of professional practice Marjorie Folkman made her class optional on Wednesday so students could “use class time to connect with friends, loved ones, sleep for an hour to catch up [or] take a walk.”
Campus Reform reported that an assistant professor at Michigan State University apparently canceled class the day after Trump was elected.
“Shlagha Borah sent a message to students explaining her decision….’I am cancelling class today to grieve the presidential election results. As a queer, immigrant woman of colour, I cannot, in good conscience, go on about my day like everything is alright,” Borah wrote. ”This is a major historical event that we are witnessing. I hope you take this time to take care of yourself.”
Students at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy were offered ‘self-care suites’ to cope with the election, where they could play with Legos, use coloring books, and drink milk and cookies, according to The New York Post.
At the University of Oregon, “Quacktavious the Therapy Duck,” baby therapy goats and therapy dogs were brought to campus “to promote well-being and lessen anxiety” for students. Students at Virginia Tech were invited to play with therapy dogs, do arts and crafts or join a “guided stretching” class as part of the school’s Election Day activities offered by the university’s counseling center.
Some Harvard graduates were disturbed by the emotional fragility of Harvard professors who canceled classes due to Trump’s election. “Fellow academics: This is nuts. Stop doing this. It makes you look like an out-of-touch crazy person. It further erodes respect for higher ed and trust in academic research. And it’s not good for your students,” William J. Luther, Associate Professor of Economics at Florida Atlantic University, wrote on X.
“Do you know how many classes Harvard cancelled after October 7th? Zero,” Harvard graduate Shabbos Kestenbaum wrote on X. “Ivy League universities are incubators of antisemitism, radicalism, and intellectual and moral bankruptcy. Tax the endowments. End federal funding. Abolish DEI.”
