Colleges and universities across America responded to the shocking general election victory of President-elect Donald Trump in the only way they know how: by creating “safe spaces” for distressed students.
The multicultural center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis encouraged students to stop by for a “space to process or reflect” on the election results.
“Election processing space,” a note taped to the door of the center read, The College Fix reported. “Feel free to come in and join the conversation.”
The Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor similarly offered itself as an “open space of support” for students dismayed by Mr. Trump’s electoral college victory.
And in an email to his classmates, George Mason University student body president Nathan Pittman recommended the services of a “healing space” on campus “in the wake of yesterday’s presidential election,” The Fix noted.
At the University of Michigan Flint, students were informed of counseling services in three separate emails over a span of five hours, and a “vigil” was reportedly in the works. Economics Professor Mark Perry wondered if those services would have been available in the event of a Hillary Clinton victory.
“In more than 20 years at UM-Flint, I am sure that these support services were never provided after previous elections, and certainly not in 2008 or 2012,” Mr. Perry told The Fix. “And if the outcome of the election had been different, I am confident that either no emails would have been sent out to the campus community, or they would have been announcements for post-election campus celebrations, rather than an announcement for a campus ‘vigil.’”
In a slightly more morose tone, Virginia Tech’s HokiePRIDE responded to the election by posting to Facebook the phone numbers for national suicide hotlines and “crisis” texting services.
