University-Sanctioned Coping Mechanisms
After the election, coddling prevailed over conversation on campus.
Columbia students aren’t happy with the election results. This, of course, was not a surprise. What was surprising was the coddling, infantilizing tone that the University took towards students in the days leading up to and after the election. For adults, knowing how to cope with upsetting news should be par for the course. At the very least, any university should want to foster students’ capacity for emotional resilience. But based on the election-related emails Columbia sent, I am no longer confident that the university values this trait at all.
Consider an email sent by Columbia College to students on November 4, the day before the election. The email advertised a “Post-Election Community Space” for students “looking for a processing space” or “hoping to decompress.” Done right, processing difficult news can actually be an immensely positive experience, and remaining optimistic in the face of a setback can be an opportunity for character growth. Instead, Columbia views discomfort with the election results as a sickness that a “community space” can help cure.
Following the election, Columbia set up “listening tables” outside Butler Library. While the university’s attempt to foster an environment of respectful discourse is a positive development, I fear that in practice, the listening tables may have little to do with listening to others and everything to do with being heard by others. Case in point—it’s hard to imagine that if Republican students came to the listening tables to express why they voted for Trump, there would be any interest in listening.
Arguably, “safe spaces” and other similar initiatives could be part of the reason Democrats underperformed in the election. Since the mid-2010s, universities have begun shielding students from ideas they don’t like. Many associate this movement with a broader cultural war—i.e. “wokeism”—and it intensifies the impression that Democrats have lost touch with the issues that matter most to working-class voters. Columbia’s promotion of “processing spaces” only reaffirms the stereotype that the elite are preoccupied with cultural concerns while dismissing dialogue that could resonate with the masses.
Perhaps most pathetic of all was an email sent out by Columbia News on November 6 with the subject line, “You’ve got this, Columbians,” promoting a “self-care workshop and opportunities for students to connect with CU Well Peer Leaders.” It’s hard to imagine that Columbia News would respond the same if the election swung in the opposite direction. If the University was truly confident in the student body’s ability to handle upsetting news, they wouldn’t have sent these emails in the first place.
Mr. Hartstein is a freshman at Columbia College studying physics. He is a staff writer for Sundial.