At deep-blue Yale University, students shocked to be facing Trump presidency

Nick Anderson:

On election night, some emailed an economics professor, Steven Berry, to ask if he could postpone a midterm exam scheduled the next morning. He agreed to make the exam optional — with additional stakes put onto the final exam for anyone who wanted to skip the midterm. Most ended up taking the test Wednesday.

University officials said academic work must go on. They said they would not issue exemptions, known as “dean’s excuses,” granting students a temporary reprieve from testing requirements because of postelection trauma.

“Dean’s excuses are not designed to respond to reactions, howsoever deeply felt or unsettling, to an event such as a national election,” the dean of academic affairs, Mark Schenker, told the Yale Daily News. Instead, Schenker said, students who need help could turn to the university’s mental health and counseling services.

Some found solace in other ways.