At ShopColumbia, Tiana Bass, a sophomore illustration major, and Angela Kalish, a junior graphic design major, were working the day of the election to prepare a new display. 

Kalish said she “crashed out” while watching election results roll in Tuesday night. “I stayed up until 3 a.m., and I saw when they called Pennsylvania,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting to see such drastic shifts in numbers.”

Bass found relief coming to work on the display on Wednesday, Nov. 6. “I’m just that person that wants to be on regimen,” she said, adding that the routine was a part of her coping skills around election stress.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” she said. “I’m still confused. I’m not the kind of person to understand stupid. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.” Bass said the country will “know they made a mistake” in electing former President Donald Trump. He beat Vice President Kamala Harris in a historic race she entered and ran for 107 days after President Joe Biden abruptly pulled out. 

Harris conceded in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, saying that “we must accept the results of this election.” She said that power will be transferred peacefully in January. When Trump lost in 2020 to Biden, he refused to accept the results of the election. He was impeached for inciting an insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“On the campaign, I would often say when we fight, we win,” she said. “But here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win.”

Harris also shared in the disappointment of many of her young supporters saying, “This election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for.”

Nearly 60% of Chicago’s nearly 1.5 million registered voters cast a ballot in the Nov. 5 election, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. Harris won Illinois, which has been a historically blue state.

“I feel sad and defeated,” said senior Grace Donovan, a senior graphic design major. “I feel sad for people that it affects, like most of my friends are part of the LGBTQ+ community that feel like their rights just all got stripped away.” 

Amelia Lutz, executive vice president of the Student Government Association, said she was still a bit numb as she processed the results.

“I’m devastated that this is what our country has decided,” she said. “I cried in my roommate’s arms this morning after hearing the news.”

Lutz said that she has a lot of concerns surrounding Trump’s policies, which directly affect her as a woman and as a lesbian. 

“Project 2025 is something that greatly scares me,” she said, referring to a strategic initiative from the conservative Heritage Foundation to influence the new president. “It threatens my right to bodily autonomy and my right to love who I love and the possibility of getting married at that.”

Moving forward, Lutz hopes that “people of this country recognize that regardless of the outcome last night, we all have a voice still.”

Additional reporting from Dustin Janicki

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The day after the election was called for Donald Trump, Sharon Marie Ross, associate professor in the School of Film and Television, said she was keeping herself busy “so that I’m not doom scrolling or anything along those lines.” 

She was not surprised by the outcome but not happy either.

“I’m a little shell shocked,” said Ross, who is teaching “Cinematic Storytelling” and “Television Studies” courses this fall, which cover media history and critical media studies. “The results, I think, speak to how deeply rooted sexism and racism is in this country and that’s very concerning to me.”

Ross was particularly anxious about Trump’s stance on immigration and his pledge to begin deportations as soon as he takes office in January. “My biggest concern just based on where I live and the friends I have is about mass deportations,” she said. She was more optimistic about reproductive rights, noting that “a lot of measures actually passed in states that Trump won to protect abortion and birth control.”

Voters in seven of 10 states that had abortion protections on their ballots passed them on Tuesday, Nov. 5. That included deeply red Missouri, the first state to adopt an abortion ban after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Voters there approved a constitutional amendment that guarantees abortion access up to the point of fetal viability, which is generally the 24th week of pregnancy. Arizona and Nevada voters also approved abortion protections. Measures failed in Florida, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Following her first class of the day, “Cinematic Storytelling,” Ross said she could tell that the students who showed up were tired and overall attendance was low. “I think a lot of students are just staying home,” Ross said. “Although coming here can be a little bit comforting because we’re in a bit of a bubble at Columbia, and a bubble can sometimes be good.”

Ross set aside class time to have an open discussion about student concerns. “Some of them are worried about generational voting differences in their families and what the holidays will be like after this,” Ross said. Several also said that the events of inauguration day in 2020 were still in the back of their minds because of “the potential sense of empowerment that some people might feel that Jan. 6 worked.”

As the class ended, Ross made a point of offering support. “I think there’s a lot of anger, a lot of frustration, disappointment in those who voted,” she said. “So we talked about what to do with those negative feelings and how you can keep from damaging yourself further or overreacting to people around you.”

Her best advice for students was to take care of themselves and “give everybody grace.” By chilling or binging on a show, “that’s not you ignoring things,” she said. “That’s you taking care of yourself.”

One positive that Ross observed was that students seem more responsive this year than in the past. She said they’re already talking about 2028, and ”how to stay active and stay engaged and to not give up.”

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Michael Rebeles, a senior English major, came to the Student Center early the day after the election to do work. He said he was excited to vote for Harris as a first-time voter. When he woke up this morning and saw that Trump won, he said his vote felt insignificant. 

“It felt kind of, I don’t know. I feel like my vote didn’t matter in the end,” he said. 

Rebeles said he felt disappointed with the results of the election. 

“Waking up in the morning, I was just beyond disappointed,” Rebeles said. “It kind of felt like we failed as a nation to women, to anybody in any community to be honest.” 

Trinity Veal, a sophomore music major, said that she wasn’t surprised to see Trump win the election. As she sat on the fourth floor of the Student Center before class, she said that she felt empathy for Kamala Harris.

“I feel bad for Kamala because she’s a Black woman and a lot of people don’t want to see that,” she said. “Part of me was shocked but another part of me was like ‘well, another four years.’ So it was definitely half and half.” 

Senior film major Hailey Wilkins said she found solace being at the Student Center on Columbia’s campus with like-minded peers. “I didn’t want to go home,” she said. “I just came here because I can kind of have my own little space, my own little world. Columbia, while it does have its bad apples, for the most part, it’s a lot of people that are like-minded.”

Wilkins had believed that Harris had the presidency all but secured, so the news of Trump’s victory was surprising. “I woke up at 5 a.m., and I looked at my phone, and my friend John texted me, saying he won, and I literally started crying,” she said. “It’s just kind of depressing, and I do see in the next couple weeks that like, carrying over. I don’t think that’s just gonna go away in four days because we accepted the results.” 

Columbia pointed students to informal support spaces on campus after the election, including the Homeroom on the 3rd floor of the Student Center near the Career Center offices, the Hive on the 3rd floor of 618 S. Michigan Ave and the library.

At the Hive, graduate students are getting ready to register. For them, election woes are put on pause.

Olivia Sun, a graduate student studying arts management, was a sophomore when Trump was elected in 2016. 

“It doesn’t get any easier,” said Sun. “It won’t necessarily get in the way of registration, just what we could do today.”

Additional reporting from Emily Ramirez.

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Michael Rebeles, a senior English major, came to the Student Center early the day after the election to do work. He said he was excited to vote for Harris as a first-time voter. When he woke up this morning and saw that Trump won, he said his vote felt insignificant. 

“It felt kind of, I don’t know. I feel like my vote didn’t matter in the end,” he said. 

Rebeles said he felt disappointed with the results of the election. 

“Waking up in the morning, I was just beyond disappointed,” Rebeles said. “It kind of felt like we failed as a nation to women, to anybody in any community to be honest.” 

Trinity Veal, a sophomore music major, said that she wasn’t surprised to see Trump win the election. As she sat on the fourth floor of the Student Center before class, she said that she felt empathy for Kamala Harris.

“I feel bad for Kamala because she’s a Black woman and a lot of people don’t want to see that,” she said. “Part of me was shocked but another part of me was like ‘well, another four years.’ So it was definitely half and half.” 

Senior film major Hailey Wilkins said she found solace being at the Student Center on Columbia’s campus with like-minded peers. “I didn’t want to go home,” she said. “I just came here because I can kind of have my own little space, my own little world. Columbia, while it does have its bad apples, for the most part, it’s a lot of people that are like-minded.”

Wilkins had believed that Harris had the presidency all but secured, so the news of Trump’s victory was surprising. “I woke up at 5 a.m., and I looked at my phone, and my friend John texted me, saying he won, and I literally started crying,” she said. “It’s just kind of depressing, and I do see in the next couple weeks that like, carrying over. I don’t think that’s just gonna go away in four days because we accepted the results.” 

Columbia pointed students to informal support spaces on campus after the election, including the Homeroom on the 3rd floor of the Student Center near the Career Center offices, the Hive on the 3rd floor of 618 S. Michigan Ave and the library.

At the Hive, graduate students were focused on getting ready to register for spring classes. 

Olivia Sun, a graduate student studying arts management, was a sophomore when Trump was elected in 2016. 

“It doesn’t get any easier,” said Sun. “It won’t necessarily get in the way of registration, just what we could do today.”

Additional reporting from Emily Ramirez.

Copy edited by Trinity Balboa

After having the day off classes to vote and participate in Election Day activities some students’ mornings have been extra rough, having to wake up and immediately go to class before they might have had time to fully process the results of the election.

Former President Donald Trump was declared the victor of the 2024 presidential election in the early morning of Wednesday, Nov. 6. Students returned to campus for their first classes, some which started at 8:30 a.m.

“Coming from an immigrant family who sacrificed a lot, it’s concerning for us,” said Owen Silva, a first-year animation major.

Arianna Sanchez, a junior graphic design major, said the election results didn’t feel real. “I have a lot of worries going through my head, especially for my family,” Sanchez said.

Students were not the only ones dealing with all the complex emotions of the aftermath of the election.

Stephanie Frank, an associate professor in the School of Communication and Culture, teaches four classes and has been using the class time to allow students to discuss and communicate with their fellow classmates.

“Frequently, students have some basic questions I can clear up about how the Electoral College works. Mostly students want to talk about how the election will impact them and the people they care about, how it makes them feel, how it makes them like, the concerns they have about their future in light of the elections,” Frank said.

But she has also found ways to still discuss class materials and assignments by finding ways to tie them into the discussion about the election.

“We didn’t talk about it in my first class, but I kind of expected that,” said Frank, who teaches four classes back-to-back on Wednesdays. Her first class was an honors history course, “The Enlightenment.”

She said she thought about how the readings in her courses could relate to the election and the outcome. 

“In two of my afternoon classes, we’re talking about a theory of ritual that, like, ritual is basically about how imperfect the world is,” Frank said.

Just before 10 on Wednesday morning, Greg Foster-Rice, associate provost for Student Retention Initiatives, and Susan Kerns, associate provost for Faculty Development and Research, emailed resources to faculty and staff to help them make space in their classrooms about the election.

“Today (and the days ahead) are full of uncertainty,” the email read. “Many of our students (and faculty/staff colleagues) have a lot of questions and fear. We know you’ll be doing this, but lean into empathy as much as possible … if a student cannot show up as their best self — that’s ok and they may need to excuse themselves from class.”

Colbey Reid, director of the School of Fashion, and Ames Hawkins, interim director of the School of Communication and Culture, both sent messages to faculty. “Some students will crave the refuge of a routine,” each wrote. “If appropriate for your class, you could offer this in a modified fashion.”

Hawkins also invited faculty to come to their office if they needed to talk.

In a 9 a.m. advertising production class, Kathleen Lorden, a part time instructor in the School of Communication and Culture, told students that they were free to leave anytime they want but that she’d be staying for the full period.

Chase Hartman, a junior in advertising, sat quietly at a lone table in the back of the class, “If I had to say anything, just how interesting it is to see the energy on campus and how people are just reacting to the election,” he said. “I feel like that’s more surprising than the election itself. I wasn’t expecting to see so many people visibly upset.”

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