I read the article, which is the professor’s defense after the fact following criticism of his decision. We have no way of knowing how many students did or did not show up and who they were, and it’s irrelevant anyway if we’re discussing this example in the sense of general policy. After all, similar incidents occurred in other institutions around the country, like UMich Law School.
We’re not. This thread is about the link that I posted.
Because they didn’t expect to lose. They expected to win. Would the Yale teachers have cancelled the exams if Clinton had won and the students were too exhausted from staying up all night waiting for returns to take an exam the next day? If they were exhausted from celebrating?
Or fire them up as to what they can do to continue their fight on issues. I don’t think there were a lot of college students happy in 1968 when Nixon won. Their professors didn’t offer alternatives to the exams or time to grieve. The students didn’t stop protesting and fighting for their causes.
I don’t have a problem with demonstrations or marches, but there should be a purpose. What’s the goal here, just to show they don’t like Trump? We know that. Some want to change the electoral college. Well, that can only be changed through a constitutional amendment and that doesn’t happen by picketing Trump Tower.
" I don’t think there were a lot of college students happy in 1968 when Nixon won. Their professors didn’t offer alternatives to the exams or time to grieve." Do you know this for a fact or is this just speculation?
“I don’t have a problem with demonstrations or marches, but there should be a purpose. What’s the goal here, just to show they don’t like Trump?”
The goal? I can think of several:
To put the new administration on notice that many people aren’t happy with the rhetoric spewed during the campaign and that if it becomes policy there will be many unhappy campers.
To show unity for and to support those that feel threatened, with reason given what has transpired IMO, by the talk and promised actions.
I think the mistake of people against the protests is assuming that it is being done with the hopes of changing the election results.
Additionally, remember that the right to assemble and protest is a constitutional right. Are you saying you want to take away that constitutional right because it makes you uncomfortable, @twoinanddone? What is wrong with having an engaged and involved populace? IMO, it is better for democracy and better than voter apathy and a population zoned out on reality tv.
Are there a few bad apples out there? Yes, but that is for local law enforcement to deal with and they have been doing so.
You reap what you sow. If you want to unite the country instead of divide it, a leader should be careful of his rhetoric and inflammatory tweets.
Some of my jobs had no PTO. Even on the jobs with relatively generous amounts of PTO and a laid back supervisor, when you could take that PTO was always at least somewhat constrained by the needs of the company.
That’s too bad, @roethlisburger . I hope your current employment gives you more leeway and consideration.
(I’ve had jobs like that too, by the way, so when I started my business I resolved to be a better, more compassionate employer. It’s a small thing, but it’s not impossible for us to make the world a little better, incrementally, through our own small everyday choices, and the best way I know to do that is to make choices from a position of compassion. So to those who say college kids are coddled and the real world is harsh, well, I have to ask: Do you like it that way? You shouldn’t. Are you interested in helping it become a little less so? You should be.)
Did I read the same article? Nearly all his students showed up. They didn’t melt. Despite, “Countless media reports (claiming) that university students are so devastated by the election results that they have stopped functioning.”
He gave them some leeway and they chose to appear.
Gotta say I agree that this is not a huge deal, especially if he generally does this type of thing as he said, as a “standard offer” to just let it ride on the final. My son had a professor like that last semester. Maybe a little unorthodox, but it doesn’t appear to be overtly political.
As far as the “countless media reports” line, there do actually appear to be several other schools/professors who have cancelled classes or held utterly stupid things like “cry -in’s”. That, to me at least, is ridiculous. It is though a consequence of living within a bubble of virtual unitary thought. This is a significant problem with not only much of campus political culture but the prog-left in general, and it bit them right in the tuchis on Tuesday. Hopefully, some clearer minds will realize this and things will begin the slow process of reform, but I’m not holding my breath.
To me, allowing students to miss class is far more acceptable than suggesting they need to calm themselves with Play-Doh and puppies. I think the reason this particular situation hit a chord is that anything related to the elite schools always does. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that students who have achieved enough success to gain admission to Yale could have made it that far in life without learning to overcome challenges, adversity and disappointment–if for no other reason than they have striven to to accomplish far more than the average person their age. Doesn’t CC always claim these schools select for the movers and shakers? The best, the brightest, the most talented? Thus, the man on the street away from the Ivory Tower would naturally assume that these students would already have developed perfectly adequate internal coping mechanisms and would not need special safe zones with hot chocolate and blankies.
My daughter is a freshman living in Massachusetts. I live in Hawaii. She was thrilled to vote and intensely involved in the election. Her communication became more and more forlorn as the election evening wore on. She mentioned she had a horrible headache.
The headache was worse the next morning, but she went to classes. “Go to the health center,” I said that afternoon. “After a quick nap,” she responded. She woke up four hours later in the worst pain she ever felt, the health center was closed, we worked together to find an Urgent Care, who said she might have Meningitis, sent her to a hospital, gave her a lumbar puncture that had blood in the sample, said she might have a brain aneurysm, sent her by ambulance to a bigger hospital that had a neurologist for an CT scan, and over 14 hours after this odyssey began released her with the Dx of a viral infection. Would a different election result have helped her cope with her viral infection before it got so bad?
She is a snowflake. She melted. Once she was released from the hospital, recuperating, she was water molecules floating back up to the clouds, and yesterday, as she sent me links showing the stats for free birth control before and after ACA and what she can do, she was forming herself into yet another unique snowflake suited to the woman she wants to be. I have no doubt life’s obstacles will melt her again and reform her again.
I’m good with this (well, worry over the incoming co-pays is giving my grey streak an opportunity to grow exponentially). You can see my daughter’s weakness as what is wrong with today’s youth. It might hurt my feelings, but she’s to busy to care.
I’m not sure I understand your point. It sounds to me like your D acted with intelligence and maturity–as we’d hope our own kids would behave–and that she is a snowflake in the good sense of the word only.
What I want to know is if the professors would have been so ‘flexible’ and understanding should Trump have lost and some of his supporters were too distraught to study, take an exam etc. DOUBTFUL
Don’t assume “doubtful.” Many kids were interested and could have stayed up late. This doesn’t have to be an us versus them with labels like prog-left. In fact, if we want to appear open-minded, we can, well, be open-minded.
In response to #52 they likely wouldn’t have understood what there was to be upset about.
@TheGFG – THIS EXACTLY
One aspect of this situation I find problematic is that the university and her representatives are implicitly shaming or insulting those students who voted for Trump and who do not consider the outcome to be anything resembling a “hot mess.” While professors and students are free to hold that opinion about the result, when the university acts like a free and democratic election likely won 306 to 232 in the electoral college is some terrible tragedy that requires at least a day off from school to recover from, they unfairly make Trump voters out to be the cause of their classmates’ supposed suffering. How is this “safe” or “inclusive” to a diverse student body that presumably holds a diversity of political views?
Who is shaming them? Where do you get that info? Why is every difference in opinion a chance to mock the “lefties” and have a tee-hee? Do you not see how extremes on both sides are an issue?
@lookingforward so you think that these professors would be equally horrified at the opposite result? Would people be needing to have safe spaces if THAT happened?? I have never in my life seen so much ‘angst’ over the result of an election - it is completely out of proportion. EDITED to add that I realize many many many people are perfectly happy with the result - clearly based on the electorate, but that there is a whole lot of over drama about all this.
Well then, the supporters of the winner can go find their own safe place so they don’t melt if empathy is such a problem for them.
What I am noticing is that the “we won” side is resorting to the same sorts of generalizing and labeling that they decry. As if it’s ok for you to stereotype and mock Dems, liberals, profs, while complaining they stereotype and mock you. Don’t you see it?
How much do you really know what goes on in these colleges, among these kids and professors? More than an anecdote or two.
The article’s prof saw nearly every student show up. What does that tell you?