As riots rage, it’s all quiet on Winchester Street

Nov. 12--Donald J. Trump is the president-elect, and it's clear a lot of college students aren't happy about it. But with a relatively quiet post-election campus, Keene State doesn't seem to neatly fit into the oft-reported narrative of academic settings in turmoil.

On Tuesday, the "Harvard Crimson" reported that students there responded to the Republican nominee's victory with shock, as some were "still struggling to believe the news hours later." The befuddlement and awe was not limited to the Ivy League. In the aftermath, sizable and vocal anti-Trump student protest groups assembled at large public colleges throughout the country, including the University of Oklahoma, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of California at Los Angeles.

At some colleges, professors have canceled classes, postponed exams and accommodated students with extensions on assignments to deal with the election's outcome.

Once again, the effect is not limited to Harvard Yard. As reported by "The National Review," some professors at large private and public institutions, such as Columbia University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Iowa, have taken such steps.

After Tuesday, "many academics... changed their lesson plans after the unexpected election result," The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. In some cases, lessons were postponed in favor of discussing the election in class.

So, it might seem logical that in New Hampshire, where Hillary Clinton bested Trump by less than half a percentage point, extreme divisiveness, mass campus protest, and unrest would be imminent.

But at Keene State, that simply hasn't been the case -- students, while some are surely affected, seem to be generally moving on, and those interviewed in the election's wake didn't report assignment extensions or similar measures.

Students consistently said that campus politics lean Democratic. There's a general feeling of disappointment on campus, they said, and some were aggrieved by the election results. But that sentiment's not transitioning to mass protest. A "silent protest" was apparently slated for Thursday evening, but most of the students interviewed said they hadn't heard about it.

There was also a lot of political diversity -- the students voted for Clinton, Trump and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. And regardless of how they felt about the results, there was a common thread about how to go forward: The election's done, and it's time to get back to work.

College junior Kerri Sears is a 20-year-old management major at Keene State who voted for Clinton. She described learning of the Trump victory as "scary," and said in some students it initially stoked fears of riots, as erupted on campus and just outside the Keene Pumpkin Festival two years ago.

The fears haven't materialized.

"I think most people, rather than anger, are just disappointed," Sears said.

Referring to Trump and Pence's professed stances against abortion rights, she added she's "not worried as a Democrat, (but) worried as a woman." But, she's putting faith in the conscience of the American electorate; if Trump is a bad president, she noted, "it's only four years."

As for how her professors are handling the news, she said, to her knowledge, they "have gone on like it didn't even happen," without extending assignment deadlines. That's a good thing, she said, because there's a lot of material to teach before the semester's out.

Sears doesn't harbor animosity against Trump voters: "Some of my best friends voted for Trump, and I don't think any less of them."

About 20 steps away, a Trump voter was busy writing an essay on the opioid crisis. She did homework on election night, too, when she was at home with her three roommates, all of whom voted for Clinton.

She applied her assiduous work habits to voting. As a person who identified as "very much in the middle," politically, Colleen Fortier, 20, a junior-year nursing major at Keene State, said she was undecided on her choice for president until she voted.

Ultimately, she voted for Trump, in part because of the prospect that he can radically change the health care system. On the stump, the candidate promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

"My dad and I talked about it, and how it's changed his insurance rates, and how it's changed everybody else's, and I think, as a whole, we need a completely different (health care) system," she said.

Still, her position isn't a ringing endorsement. She expressed disappointment about the major-party choice between Clinton and Trump, and rather than being happy with the outcome said she's "content" with the election results.

What she hasn't liked is what she described as an "uproar of social media hate" against Trump voters, in which commenters said that people who voted for him also endorse his whole platform, or are racists. That's jumping to conclusions, she argued.

"I am a nursing major who plans on giving care to anybody, regardless of their orientation, and I still voted for (Trump) because I think he's going to be better for our system," Fortier said. "That doesn't mean that I'm racist."

Like Sears, Fortier also expressed tolerance for political views different than her own. She listened to one of her roommates, an environmental studies major, who she said is "very concerned" about Trump's stance on related issues.

Like Sears, Fortier said she hadn't heard of any on-campus protests against Trump's election -- which was again repeated by a young independent voter who ended up pulling for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

Tyler Miller, 18, a freshman, who said most of his friends also voted for Johnson or other third-party candidates, said he's "not looking forward" to Trump's presidency, and described the campus overall as "calm but upset." One of his professors granted a post-election extension, but it was for an optional assignment.

His own feelings on Trump are somewhat mixed. Miller doesn't think that war is imminent, and welcomes the idea of the U.S. having good foreign relations, including with Russia, but added that "there's all this proof that (Trump's) kind of an (expletive)."

Trump's persona is a domestic problem, he thinks, because it pits emboldened Trump supporters with "negative, racist (and) insulting" views against anti-Trump protesters.

"I'm... a little bit more nervous about people than Trump himself," Miller said.

The uncertainties of this political outsider winning the White House are an area of interest for at least one Keene State professor, who is trying to discern the global impact of a Trump administration.

Tom Durnford, a professor of modern languages and cultures, teaches several levels of French at the college. In his classes since the election results came in, he has discussed two major election-related points: emails he has received from colleagues and friends abroad, and news coverage of President-elect Trump.

One of the emails he shared with his classes came from a retired professor in France who wrote that "the United States is always 10 to 20 years ahead of us ... this election prefigures what is waiting to happen in France." Durnford added that he personally believes Trump's election may be a harbinger of increasing support for rightist political movements in France and other European countries.

Durnford also said that he didn't like what he saw as "self-congratulatory language" of news outlets covering Trump's meeting with President Obama Thursday, as he thinks the meeting itself doesn't inherently mean much for the future success of American institutions.

"(We see) Obama shaking Trump's hand, and how this is a hallmark of our democracy -- the smooth and peaceful transition of power. I said, 'Wait a minute! When Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada and announced a radical change from Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, were there riots in the streets of Vancouver? Did universities explode across Alberta?' So, hello, folks."

He added that Trump's true global impact remains to be seen.

"(There's) a lot of question marks."

Isaac Stein can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1435, or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ISteinKS

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