In just over two months, President Donald Trump will be inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States following last week’s national election. Trump’s electoral victory on Nov. 5 brought about both happiness and disappointment throughout the country and on the campus of Fairfield University. In the days following, some Fairfield students and staff have expressed sadness and anger over the prospect of the incoming Trump-J.D. Vance administration while others have celebrated.
Mishell Pringle ‘25 says she felt like there was “a heavy veil” over campus as students of differing opinions reacted with opposite emotions.
“As a member of the Black Student Union, we were all experiencing a mix of sadness, anger and every emotion in between,” Pringle said. “I felt uncomfortable in many of my classes, knowing that some of my peers had voted for someone who doesn’t value me or my community.”
Trump voter Andrew Becker ‘25, on the other hand, felt excited by Trump’s reelection and was pleased with the voter turnout for his candidate of choice.
“I believe the Trump victory was a huge win for free speech, democracy, the economy, women’s rights, safety of citizens and peace around the world,” Becker said. “It is amazing the turnout that Trump received from all voter groups, especially younger voters.”
Students also took to the ever-popular social media app Fizz to anonymously share their thoughts on Trump’s re-election.
“I’m a girl that voted for Trump,” one user wrote. “I beg all my girls to do their research. I’ve been given false information by so many girls here. “I’m not gonna sit here and say he’s perfect but get an education.” Another said, “…Trump won the popular vote. If you have a problem, take it up with the tens of millions of people that didn’t want to suffer economically.”
One popular post with over 1,500 upvotes as of Monday, Nov. 11 reads: “Imagine unfollowing every single person who voted for someone different than you…We’ve seen your Liberal propaganda posts for years now and haven’t unfollowed.” Some posts were more vulgar and appear to have been taken down.
Pringle, who says she was “disappointed, but not surprised” by Trump’s win, noticed many people making disparaging comments about Vice President and former presidential candidate Harris on the app.
“It’s okay if you feel she hasn’t accomplished much in the past four years and that’s why you voted for the Republican ticket,” Pringle said. “However, making comments like ‘she slept her way to the top,’ ‘she’s inexperienced,’ or ‘women can’t lead,’ is simply disrespectful to both women and people of color. This is mostly what I’ve been seeing on Fizz.”
The majority of Fizz commentary was pro-Trump, as were the responses in an informal political poll posted on the app. Yet, the student body may be more evenly split than a visit to the app suggests; in the Mirror/Rearview election survey, students chose Harris over Trump by a small margin.
Senior Tim Furey described his own feelings about the election results as “shock” and “disappointment”: “I wrongfully put my faith in the citizens of this country to make a decision to push forward towards a brighter future, and they have instead chosen to revert to the harmful rhetoric and antiquated policies of the past,” Furey said.
Sophomore John Beam says he hopes that people on all sides can “heal and come together” as a nation. “This election sent a clear message that the people sent, that they preferred Donald Trump to represent them as their President,” Beam said. “No matter where you stand or if you voted for Harris or Trump, we must move on and work together to solve the major, pressing challenges that will face us in 2025.”
Reflecting the university’s political divide, English professor Sonya Huber noticed that about half of her students “were in shock” the day after the election.
“It will never stop being shocking that many people voted for a person without understanding that he wants to destroy higher education, the Affordable Care Act and many other social services and institutions that protect the environment, our health and children,” Huber said. “To know where we’re headed is scary, and half our students are aware and scared. It has turned out, since then, that each time I teach, I end class early, and each day, there’s been a student or two who needs to stay and talk. I encourage students who need support to reach out to professors.”
In addition to being there to support students, Huber also set out to provide support for other faculty members who may need it. On Nov. 11, Huber hosted a gathering for university faculty in the DiMenna Nyselius Library’s Fredrickson Family Innovation Lab. Ahead of the event, Huber outlined why she decided to plan the gathering.
“Honestly, I just reserved a room because I’d gotten inquiries from faculty—there’s been quite a void, with little acknowledgment that half the students on campus are suddenly having the worst semester of their college careers,” Huber said. “And faculty need support, too—we’re people, many of us are grieving, I’m gonna bring snacks and we’re just going to talk and support each other. This is what we do.”
Staff members were invited to attend the Monday afternoon gathering to share thoughts and feelings following a week when, according to the email invitation, “the welfare of faculty and others on campus has taken a major hit.” As an event with “no agenda,” faculty members were given an opportunity to discuss openly.
While many classes have had discussions on the recent election, not every professor has chosen to broach the topic with their students. Among these is Professor Elizabeth Petrino.
“I haven’t brought this up. I thought about doing it and then I did not make my politics explicit. I feel as a professor that I need to embrace everyone’s views in my classroom. My job is to teach,” Petrino said.
Still, Petrino noted that although politics are not an explicit topic in her class, she noticed differences in student behavior following the election: “Students have seemed a little bit more on edge.”
She also mentioned specific worries over what a second Trump administration may hold for the Department of Education, a fear that Huber shares.
“We suddenly have quite a bit of work to do to defend higher education,” Huber said. “The winners of the election have said outright that they’re going to target faculty and activists. I mean, when a candidate says outright that he wants to put the left wing in concentration camps and deport millions of people, we have a serious problem…I think a period of chaos is approaching, but we have the answers for how to deal with this in our classrooms, in our books. The question is who is paying attention.”
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