One more unforeseen consequence of Donald Trump’s election victory: College students who have been spending too much time binge drinking or binge watching now have a handy excuse for not turning in that required paper on time or for being unprepared for that exam. They can blame it on the election. You see, professor, the prospect of Donald Trump in the White House and the realization that there are millions of Americans out there who have reached their limit when it comes to the nasty little tyrannies of p.c. has just been too much.
The places of higher learning, however, have anticipated this development and actually taken seriously the possibility that the election of Trump might deeply traumatize the delicate creatures they are supposed to be educating. So they have reacted quickly to forestall outbreaks of Trump-induced PTSD. There is, for example, this passage from a letter written by the president of the University of Vermont. (We received a copy from a deep undercover source at UVM.)
“Many on our campus are experiencing a range of emotions, uncertainty, and concerns. As we move forward as a nation and community, many questions remain how the transition and change will affect our lives and society.”
So for “colleagues and students, who may be feeling isolated and concerned for personal welfare,” the university will be providing “programs and resources . . . for support and encouragement.”
At one event there will be “tea and reflections . . . along with meditations (4:15 pm & 6:40 pm) and a structured discussion at 5:30 pm.”
The tea is a nice touch and certain to calm the anxieties of those tortured college kids. But if the tea is not enough, there are additional resources, “such as the LGBTQA Center, the ALANA Center, the Women’s Center, the Center for Cultural Pluralism, the Office of International Education, the Dean of Students Office, and the Interfaith Coordinator who is the liaison to the Spiritual and Religious Life Council.”
The University of Vermont is far from unique in this neurotic response to the election returns. As the Washington Examiner‘s Ashe Schow reports, students at the University of Michigan-Flint “will be able to visit ‘safe spaces’ and receive ‘counseling’ for all their election-woe needs, according to an email sent to the UM-Flint community.”
And as our colleague Jenna Lifhits writes at weeklystandard.com, “Barnard, the women’s liberal arts college based in New York City, has given professors the opportunity to cancel classes and is offering students counseling after the ‘heightened emotions’ caused by the election. ‘The Barnard faculty is well aware that you may be struggling, and they are here for you,’ read an email from the college president and dean.”
There are many other examples. And they come from places like Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, where an economics professor saved his students the trouble of coming up with an alibi for shoddy work when he “made his exam optional after students wrote to him expressing ‘shock’ and sadness over the election results.”
Economics professors would, you think, understand incentives, and this seems to be a case of an elite university incentivizing timidity and weakness among those who are, we’re told, being trained and educated to lead.
It’s hard to follow someone who is hiding under the covers.
