Dropped my ballot off yesterday.
Today, as Google Calendar and every human being on Earth apparently tell me, is Election Day in America.
I have a post coming up from a futurist’s perspective, offering some thoughts, but this post is for you all. The comment box stands open, so that you can share your thoughts and observations:
What are you seeing today in and around higher education?
From my side, a few things.
First, my Georgetown seminar on technology normally takes place Tuesday nights.
The students persuaded me and each other to reschedule tonight’s session for later in the week.
They were concerned about possible chaos – quite reasonably, since many of them live in the Washington, DC area, which is a fine candidate for unrest and madness of all kinds. In fact, we’re not the only ones battening down the hatches.
Second, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed each have front page readings about academia and this election, if you’re looking for last-minute voting fodder or just general information and reflection.
Third, from my neighborhood: Manassas, Virginia is pretty quiet so far. There haven’t been many indications of the national election here since the Democratic primary. There are very few yard signs for either presidential candidate and we haven’t gotten a mailer for a long time. In our Congressional race, Republican Rob Wittman has been shipping us fliers perfectly designed to get us to support his opponent, Qasim Rashid.
I’ve already voted (see photograph above) but may drive around today to see how things go – and never ever leave the car.
Fourth… ah, back to the next blog post.
Now, over to you. What are you seeing, dear academics and academically-adjacent folks?
EDITED TO ADD: Thank you for sharing, friends.
Some stories and observations from Twitter:
https://twitter.com/KBeeHall/status/1323679560882364428
We also extended counseling hours through the week since we are unlikely to see a final result tonight. The rest of us plan to stress bake and listen to the sound track for #hamiltonmusical
— Jim Russell (@jimcrussell) November 3, 2020
My husband and I have voted early for about a decade now in our small, Kansas county. One goes to the courthouse in a nearby small town. All was calm and very upbeat when we voted, but our population is low. My husband writes an opinion column for our local newspaper and a farm magazine. There has been more negative feedback on his writing that asks readers to evaluate the failures of the Trump administration in the last four weeks than in previous years (he has written these columns for over 15 years). However, he has also been stopped on the street and gotten texts from local people who approve of his work and will vote for Biden. As for our campus, it is fairly peaceful today but I suspect there is some disagreement on the Trump/Biden choice between faculty and administration.
Deborah, thank you for sharing this story. Kudos to your husband, and best wishes for peace.