Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    University Transformation
Sign In
Newsletter Icon

Teaching

Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, sign up to receive it in your email inbox.

October 22, 2020
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email

From: Beth McMurtrie

Subject: Teaching: Can Colleges Prepare Students for the Election and Its Aftermath?

This week:

  • I talk to two professors about why colleges may be unprepared to handle students’ concerns around the election.
  • I point you to some resources around teaching about the election.
  • I share some articles and ideas on teaching you may have missed.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

This week:

  • I talk to two professors about why colleges may be unprepared to handle students’ concerns around the election.
  • I point you to some resources around teaching about the election.
  • I share some articles and ideas on teaching you may have missed.

Politics, Pandemics, and Zoom

It’s mid-semester and many professors and students feel as if they’re at their breaking point. Zoom fatigue, social isolation, remote education, and exponentially larger workloads are hitting everyone hard.

So how does perhaps the most significant presidential election in our lifetimes fit into campus life? Not easily, say two professors who have been watching, and worrying, whether colleges are doing enough to help students understand the issues underlying this election and handle its aftermath.

Samuel Abrams, a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College, and Jeremi Suri, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, say that it’s a critically important time for colleges to create spaces in which students can talk to faculty members and others on campus about the election.

Abrams and Suri have written several opinion pieces about student-voter enthusiasm, noting that young people could be a decisive force in the election. Yet that enthusiasm could be at risk if colleges can’t provide constructive events for students’ questions and concerns. And the two say they aren’t seeing enough activity.

It’s problematic, yet understandable. How do you hold, for example, a nuanced conversation on Zoom about the inherent tensions between the First Amendment and extensive disinformation campaigns? Who is willing to speak frankly among people they may have never met in person about racism, voter suppression, and possible post-election protests? And can a distanced learning environment really allow for open conversation when everything is being recorded and you might not know where it will land?

Holding such discussions within a class is hard enough; holding a campuswide conversation is even harder. “Schools are stretched so much with remote learning,” says Abrams, “that there is very little planning on what to do on a mass level” beyond classroom conversations.

Yet this is exactly when college students need the kind of perspective that faculty members can offer. Suri, who holds an appointment in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, says that government, history, and political-science professors could speak about past elections to show that the country has lived through such tumult before. “We have this mythical view that elections are clean things and everyone accepts the results,” he says, “and that’s not true.”

On his own campus, he notes, events that focus on politics have largely stuck to traditional topics. Peter Baker and Susan Glasser were recently invited to speak about their new book on James A. Baker III, for example. But what students really want to discuss are issues like political misbehavior, law-breaking, escalating violence, and claims of voter fraud — and their effect on the election. “The real lacuna is outside the classroom,” he says. “Teach-ins and public discussion.”

The two offered several ideas to foster conversation. Abrams suggests tapping into the extensive apparatus of residence life, in which staff members and students who are trained to facilitate discussions could organize virtual get-togethers, inviting faculty members to join as experts. Suri suggests scheduling informal Zoom “happy hours” (sans alcohol) on the general topic of the election to allow for open discussion and Q&A. He also suggests scheduling a short webinar discussion with someone who has worked on a prior presidential transition.

Holding events in which students and professors can have broad-ranging conversations could give students a sense of agency, the two professors say. “They need to talk about this stuff because they don’t know the path forward, the history, what works and what doesn’t,” says Suri. “If you’re young, there’s this sense that this is apocalyptic.” Their concerns also tie into broader conversations that campuses have been having around racial justice and policing, he says.

Abrams says he’s seen a significant increase in mental-health challenges among his students, which he connects to a sense of political disengagement that he finds troubling. A number of his students said they didn’t even plan to vote. (Both UT Austin and Sarah Lawrence have been operating mostly remotely this semester.)

To counter those feelings of hopelessness, he says, will take the combined work of mental-health experts and professors who can help guide students through these complicated issues and place them into historical context. “But that takes a lot of coordination and a lot of work,” he says. “And it’s very hard to do when the human touch is important.”

Suri echoes that concern and encourages colleges to sponsor events in which people can talk about the events surrounding the presidential campaign, pulling in faculty members, student affairs, and other parts of the campus. “Part of the story would be, our elections have been very messy for a long time. Let’s understand how our moment fits in.”

Has your college held discussions with students about the election in a way that you consider helpful? Or is your campus planning any events following the election? If so, write to me at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com and your story may appear in a future newsletter.

Resources on Teaching About the Election

If you’re looking to address the election on your own campus, here are some resources you might find useful:

The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching and the Edward Ginsberg Center at the University of Michigan have put together a guide for faculty members, Preparing to Teach About the 2020 Election and After.

Debra Mashek, former executive director of the Heterodox Academy, wrote an essay for Inside Higher Ed on how colleges can avoid post-election student unrest.

Princeton University is co-sponsoring a virtual event on November 20, The 2020 Elections: What Happened and Why?

ICYMI

  • In the second in a series of essays on distraction for The Chronicle, James M. Lang, an English professor and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College, shares three strategies to gain students’ attention.
  • Beckie and I have been asking faculty members to share their stories on teaching during the pandemic. If you want to tell us what it’s been like for you, please fill out our Google form. We have been reading all the entries, so thank you!
  • Our Chronicle colleague Alex Kafka reports on how the pandemic and racial turmoil are reshaping college curricula.

Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com or beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.

-Beth

Learn more about our Teaching newsletter, including how to contact us, at the Teaching newsletter archive page.

Tags
Teaching & Learning
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Black and white photo of the Morrill Hall building on the University of Minnesota campus with red covering one side.
Finance & operations
U. of Minnesota Tries to Soften the Blow of Tuition Hikes, Budget Cuts With Faculty Benefits
Photo illustration showing a figurine of a football player with a large price tag on it.
Athletics
Loans, Fees, and TV Money: Where Colleges Are Finding the Funds to Pay Athletes
Photo illustration of a donation jar turned on it's side, with coins spilling out.
Access & Affordability
Congressional Republicans Want to End Grad PLUS Loans. How Might It Affect Your Campus?
Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. delivers remarks during the State Board of Education meeting at Winter Park High School, Wednesday, March 27, 2024.
Executive Privilege
In Florida, University Presidents’ Pay Goes Up. Is Politics to Blame?

From The Review

Photo illustration of a classical column built of paper, with colored wires overtaking it like vines of ivy
The Review | Essay
The Rise of a New Ed Tech Buzzword
By Kit Nicholls
William F. Buckley, Jr.
The Review | Interview
William F. Buckley Jr. and the Origins of the Battle Against ‘Woke’
By Evan Goldstein
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The Review | Opinion
What RFK Jr. Got Right About Academic Publishing
By Robert M. Kaplan

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: A Global Leadership Perspective
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin