Talking about Trump: healing through discussion

De Anza administration as well as many professors, choose to provide discussion forums for students to reflect on the election, while one student said they had to go to four classes before a professor was willing to devote time on the issue.

On Nov. 9, students gathered in the Main Quad. The open mic encouraged students to express feelings ranging from shock to anger, with one student even encouraging others to pray with him.

East Cottage hosted a planning meeting on Nov. 10 at 3:30 p.m., where De Anza College President Brian Murphy spoke. Students bore the slogan, “Not My President,” as well as expletives on hand-made clothing.

Murphy held a post-election conversation uniting over a hundred students on Nov. 16. The conversation allowed students to discuss their thoughts in an intimate setting. Murphy then offered the floor to anyone who wished to share their opinions.

Several professors took different approaches towards the news of president-elect Donald Trump.

Vaibhav Vijaykar, 18, economics major, said his economics professor discussed how a Trump presidency would affect taxpayers and citizens in terms of imports and exports.

Diego 26, mechanical engineering major said biology professor Gayatri Pal looked disappointed and stressed out. “She offered students to come in and talk to her if they felt any certain way about the election,” Uribe said.

Chris Skoff, 21, English, language arts and mathematics major, said English professor Khalida Kareemi held a debate for the last hour of class.

“There was one guy who was Republican,” Skoff said. “He was pretty much the only one defending Trump and his values.”

English professor Kimberly Braasch said she devoted the first hour of her class to talking about the results of the election. She said she felt it was important to give her students a voice.

“We had different opinions within the class,” Braasch said. “Everyone handled it very well by saying ‘I see what you’re saying, but I disagree with it.’”

Braasch said there was a lot of crying and anger, but also communication.

“I realized how much I learned getting feedback from the students,” Braasch said. “I’m more of that ‘power to the people,’ we can get together and we can get through this, and some of them said ‘You know, I feel like that’s a slap in the face.’” According to Braasch, one student went to four classes before she found a professor who was willing to devote class time to talking about the election results, and other students thanked Braasch for providing the opportunity.

“Leaving that night, I noticed there were about ten or eleven students still continuing the conversation,” Braasch said. “That’s when the healing starts.”