Classes canceled at Harvard, Penn, Columbia over Trump win: 'As a queer, immigrant woman of color,' 'I cannot go' 'about my day'



Several professors at Ivy League schools canceled classes, excused absences, and allowed exams to be rescheduled because former President Donald Trump decidedly won the 2024 election.

The Harvard Crimson reported that the school's dean, Rakesh Khurana, told students to “let yourself feel a bunch of emotions about how this is going to impact us in the future, and listen to other people and how they feel about it too.”

'[If] you don't feel up for class, absences today will be excused.'

The outlet noted that following Trump's election victory, instructors for courses such as Statistics for Social Sciences, Solving and Optimizing, the Ancient Greek Hero, and Popular Culture and Modern China had canceled their Wednesday classes, made attendance optional, or extended assignment deadlines.

Economics lecturer Maxim Boycko allegedly sent an email to students in an Intermediate Microeconomics course that in-class quizzes would be optional.

“As we recover from the eventful election night and process the implications of Trump’s victory, please know that class will proceed as usual today, except that classroom quizzes will not be for credit,” Boycko reportedly wrote. “Feel free to take time off if needed.”

Physics professor Jennifer E. Hoffman purportedly wrote in an email to students and faculty that her office would be “a space to process the election.”

“Many in our community are sleep-deprived, again grieving for glass ceilings that weren't shattered, fearful for the future, or embarrassed to face our international colleagues,” Hoffman reportedly wrote. “I stress-baked several pans of lemon bars to share.”

Citing internal emails, the Washington Free Beacon reported that a Columbia professor granted students permission to skip class.

"I hope you are hanging in there. I have been think of you over the last few days," the Columbia professor reportedly wrote to her students. "[If] you don't feel up for class, absences today will be excused."

Meanwhile, because of the election results, a professor at Columbia University's sister school, Barnard College, allegedly offered students a chance to "replace" an exam on which they performed poorly.

"In recognition of the increased stressed [sic] some of you might be feeling because of the election results, I will offer to replace your midterm Exam 2 grade with your Final Exam grade if better," a Barnard professor reportedly wrote to students.

Campus Reform reported that Michigan State University Professor Shlagha Borah canceled classes because Trump won the election.

Borah, an assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures, allegedly told her students in a memo on Wednesday night, "I am cancelling class today to grieve the presidential election results. As a queer, immigrant woman of color, I cannot, in good conscience, go on about my day like everything is alright."

”This is a major historical event that we are witnessing," Borah added. "I hope you take this time to take care of yourself."

Michigan State University spokesperson Mark Bullion told the College Fix on Thursday that campus leaders are “aware of the situation and are addressing it through the appropriate leadership channels.”

The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that several professors at the University of Pennsylvania canceled classes in response to the election.

Economics professor Anne Duchene told the outlet she made attendance optional to her class in advance of the election results.

“I thought maybe, [having an optional lecture] can help everyone pretend it’s business as usual, instead of just looking at your screens constantly, trying to understand what [happened],” Duchene reportedly stated.

“I just wanted to acknowledge the wide variety of emotions that were in the classroom and also to respect these emotions,” Duchene allegedly said. “It's really hard to know how the students are, what the students are really thinking, but my interpretation is that they wanted to have a normal class.”

Neuroscience professor Michael Kaplan also pre-emptively canceled his Wednesday classes, according to the report.

Anthropology professor Caroline Jones allegedly rescheduled an exam after “a slew of emails” from students expressed concern about preparing for an exam scheduled right after the election.

The Phoenix, a student-run newspaper at Swarthmore College, where annual tuition and room and board cost about $65,000, reported on the reaction to the election results:

As the Swarthmore community came to terms with the news, an outpouring of resources flooded their inboxes. Some professors canceled classes, the Office of Student Engagement encouraged students to use Sharples Commons as a "safe space to land," and the department of political science promoted its pre-scheduled panel discussion set for Wednesday afternoon, "Election Night 2024: What Just Happened and What’s to Come."

As Blaze News reported this week, Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy established "self-care suites" following Trump's decisive 2024 election victory. Georgetown University attempted to soothe liberal students by offering them milk and cookies, hot cocoa, Legos, and coloring books.

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Harvard pays the price for pro-Hamas protests, anti-Semitism on campus with 15% donation drop



On Thursday, Harvard University released its fiscal year 2024 financial report, which revealed a nearly 15% decline in donations compared to the previous year, marking the most significant drop in a decade.

According to the report, the Ivy League school received $1.38 billion in donations in 2023, which plunged to $1.17 billion in 2024.

'Launched efforts to understand where and how we can improve.'

Despite the decline, Harvard did not lose its spot as the wealthiest university in the world. In fiscal year 2024, the Ivy League school generated a 9.6% return on its endowment fund, valued at $53.2 billion.

The significant donation dip can be attributed to several of Harvard’s top donors vowing to halt their funding over the university’s poor handling of the pro-Hamas campus protests.

In January, Kenneth Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel LLC, a hedge fund, called Harvard students “whiny snowflakes” and said he would no longer donate to the institution.

“I’d like that to change, and I have made that clear to members of the corporate board,” Griffin stated. “But until Harvard makes it very clear that they’re going to resume their role as educating young American men and women to be leaders, to be problem solvers, to take on difficult issues, I’m not interested in supporting the institution.”

He accused Harvard and other elite universities of “being lost in the wilderness of microaggressions, a DEI agenda that seems to have no real endgame.”

Griffin previously donated over $500 million to Harvard.

Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund firm, also declared he would no longer donate to his alma mater.

“I came to learn that the root cause of antisemitism at Harvard was an ideology that had been promulgated on campus, an oppressor/oppressed framework, that provided the intellectual bulwark behind the protests, helping to generate anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate speech and harassment,” Ackman wrote in a lengthy X post.

Leonard V. Blavatnik, a billionaire philanthropist, stopped donating after previously providing Harvard Medical School with $200 million, the single largest donation to the school.

Former Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned in January following a massive plagiarism scandal amid already mounting criticism for her failed handling of the pro-Hamas protests.

Harvard’s new president, Alan Garber, wrote a message in the Ivy League school’s latest financial report, stating that the institution has “launched efforts to understand where and how we can improve.”

“Our task forces to combat antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, and anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian bias are focused on rebuilding not only a sense of belonging but also genuine acceptance among members of our community,” Garber wrote.

He noted that two of the school’s working groups “have outlined paths to more meaningful communication and constructive disagreement.”

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Suspended Jewish professor who criticized pro-Hamas radicals required to undergo re-education to return to Columbia



Columbia University announced this week the temporary suspension of Shai Davidai, an Israeli Jewish assistant professor at the university's business school.

Davidai was previously briefly suspended in April by the Ivy League school after pro-Hamas protests set up a large encampment at the main campus where the professor teaches, Blaze News previously reported.

'Hatred happens when people like you are indifferent.'

On Tuesday, Davidai posted on X stating that he was once again barred from Columbia following an exchange last week with Cas Holloway, the university's chief operating officer.

On the memorial of the October 7 massacre, Davidai joined pro-Israel and Jewish students in hosting two on-campus memorials, which included an art installation and a memorial service featuring speakers and songs.

However, the memorials were interrupted by a massive group of partially and completely masked pro-Hamas activists who encircled the Jewish students while they stood silently holding Israeli flags.

Davidai wrote on X, "Imagine hating someone so much that you won't even let them grieve. Not even one day."

Videos of the pro-Palestine demonstration showed hundreds of individuals marching through campus, blocking walkways for other foot traffic and bicycles.

The activists chanted, "One solution," and, "Resistance is glorious! We will be victorious!"

Davidai explained, "First, they circled the area in which the Jewish memorial service had just been held. Then, they stopped their march and protested right outside the memorial art installation. They are sending a clear message. They are protesting us."

According to Davidai, the Jewish students who hosted the memorial for the October 7 victims "followed every rule in the books," while the masked pro-Hamas activists "flagrantly openly disobeyed them."

Davidai called Columbia's failure to act "cowardice."

The professor posted videos confronting Holloway as he walked through campus amid the ongoing protest.

"Hatred happens when people like you are indifferent," he told Holloway.

On Tuesday, Davidai provided an update to his social media followers, writing, "Last week, I posted a video of Cas Holloway, @Columbia's COO, allowing a Hamas march on campus in celebrationg [sic] of the October 7 Massacre. He has now retaliated and had me suspended from campus."

In a statement to the New York Times, Columbia confirmed that Davidai was temporarily suspended, claiming that he "repeatedly harassed and intimidated university employees in violation of university policy."

The news outlet noted that the suspension does not impact the professor's employment or salary.

According to the school, Davidai may return only once he "undertakes appropriate training on our policies governing the behavior of our employees."

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Elite colleges are anti-white; here's what to do about it



In my first month of college, I was banned from a debate tournament because I’m white.

The club president was an Indian kid who had interned at Goldman Sachs over the summer. He somberly told the entire room that white kids were winning too much and that it was unfair to minorities.

If the Democrats pander to young black people, then the Republicans must pander to young, gifted white males — themselves a minority whose potential is increasingly wasted.

I had two thoughts at the time:

1. How dare you treat white people like this, Devesh. (His name was actually Devesh.) You live in America. The only reason your family left India is because white people made the United States an infinitely better country. Show some respect to them.

2. Is there any group hated more than young, gifted white men?

No room for debate

College debate now requires trigger warnings before each round. If you don’t provide them, you automatically lose. Tournaments now revolve around topics like “queerness in 'Wuthering Heights'" and “How do we eliminate whiteness?”

Leftist ideology has ruined an activity that once served as an opportunity for intelligent white kids to demonstrate excellence, become recognized, and enter the elite.

How can young, gifted white men demonstrate excellence these days? The system has completely abandoned them. If they manage to get into an elite university, they quickly realize how unwelcome they are.

Return to risk

In my freshman year, I attended an information session for law school. Everything I heard for 45 minutes was about “women in law” and “Black Students Association.” It dawned on me how everything has become feminized and anti-white, from something as subtle as the cutesy and intentionally unintimidating design of the PowerPoints to the explicit and unapologetic discrimination against white men.

Young white men have subconsciously recognized that originality and risk-taking are strictly frowned upon. They can climb the ladder if they always obey directions, but they will never be great. They’ll merely be another cog in the machine, eternally replaceable and subject to ridicule.

This realization has done profound damage to the psyche of white men, and I think it’s one of the greatest crises of our time. All of this presents a unique opportunity for the Republican Party. Currently, there is a severe shortage of young Republican leaders.

Geriatric Old Party

You watched the Republican National Convention. How many of the headline speakers were under the age of 40? Compare that to the Democratic National Convention. Say what you want about the Democrats, but they have the future in their grasp. When the Boomers are gone, what will the Republicans do? Do they even know?

If the Democrats pander to young black people, then the Republicans must pander to young, gifted white males — themselves a minority whose potential is increasingly wasted. Many of these men don’t care about politics because they feel it’s fake and doesn’t help them. They see Democrats as the party of non-whites and Republicans as the party of corporations, and they zone out.

But if the Republicans were to tap into the yearning among these men for greatness by providing them opportunities for achievement, an entirely new party could emerge. There are many ways to accomplish this, and they need not and should not be explicitly political.

Reform college debating

For example, why not reform college debating? An organization called APDA (American Parliamentary Debate Association) currently has a monopoly on college debating at elite universities. This is the organization that bans white students and requires trigger warnings. It’s also the organization that hosts all the tournaments.

The Republican Party — or, more realistically, a nonprofit loosely connected to Republicans — could establish a competing association that doesn’t discriminate against white people or mandate trigger warnings. Keep the debate topics nonpartisan to ensure a diversity of beliefs.

There you go. You now have an organization that would establish the right as the side for high-achieving young people and provide a way for the GOP to identify promising talent.

Create a better LinkedIn

Here’s another idea: Why not create a competitor to LinkedIn that doesn’t have all the corporate phoniness — and instead rewards risk-taking and authenticity? Get all the tech bros who support Trump to work on this.

Importantly, this platform should not be explicitly conservative or only for political jobs. It should be promoted as an elite service, requiring an extensive application process — like those highly exclusive dating apps — to find the brightest and boldest students and match them with companies in all industries seeking that talent.

It would also serve as a rare outlet for these students to network with each other without worrying about being “canceled.”

Recruit promising young talent

Another idea: Why not create an organization that identifies gifted high-schoolers in Middle America, mentors them to get into the best college possible, and pays for their entire college tuition?

The Republican Party regularly bemoans how out of touch our elite are. The solution, then, is to form a new elite. Require the students to write a pro-America essay, interview them to ensure they have right-wing sensibilities, and you’re good to go. With the GOP’s budget, this could help hundreds of brilliant kids each year.

Yes, these universities are hostile toward white men. But they also provide unmatched resources and connections. I have benefited from them myself! You get the point. There is an untapped pool of genius that the right could benefit from if it cared enough. Young, gifted white men want to seek greatness — they just need the opportunity to do so. If you help them, they will help you.

How to get into the Ivy League as a white male



University of Chicago senior Daniel Schmidt recently sparked controversy with posts on X calling attention to the high rates of violent crime on and around campus (including the murders of three students during the first eleven months of 2021). Most of the perpetrators of these crimes, Schmidt noted, are black — which means that any proposals to reduce these crimes, even one as simple as asking for more police, are denounced as "racist" by leftist students and faculty.

Since the posts, Schmidt has been condemned by the University of Chicago's student government and its Organization of Black Students, amid many calls for his expulsion. While X has throttled Schmidt's original post for violating rules against "hateful conduct," University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos has defended Schmidt's right to speak freely.

Schmidt previously came under fire in 2023 for X posts critical of University of Chicago lecturer Rebecca Journey's seminar "The Problem of Whiteness."

"It’s ... one of the only colleges today that sincerely protects free speech (why I can make this post without getting expelled)," posted Schmidt about his school. "It’s undoubtedly the only top university that cowards haven’t co-opted. I love it dearly."

In that spirit, we're publishing Schmidt's advice, originally posted on his X account, on how to get into the University of Chicago and other top American educational institutions.

—Matt Himes

I got into Princeton, Yale, and the University of Chicago three years ago. I wrote my admission essay about going to a Trump rally when I was 13 and how it inspired me.

This essay was part of a calculated strategy. When I was in high school, I understood that I had to game the system because I’m a white male. I realized I had to combine extreme risk-taking with extreme competence — two characteristics that maybe only 1% of people simultaneously have.

Yes, these universities are biased against you because you’re a white guy. But even greater than their disdain for white people is their need to claim future high achievers — because that is their entire business model.

Why? For one, I knew it would make me stand out. How many kids applying to Yale write about going to a Trump rally? But more importantly, I recognized that these universities are ultimately businesses. They retain their prestige and donations through the achievements of their alumni.

The admission process is simply a psychological screening to identify these future high achievers.

Unusual risk-taking at a young age coupled with demonstrated competence through test scores, grades, and extracurriculars are indicators of future success. I knew that admission officers would identify that, consciously or subconsciously, and that I could beat the odds placed against me because I’m white.

So if you’re a white male in high school, or a relative of one, here’s what I recommend.

First, you must discover what you’re passionate about and only focus on that. For me, it was public speaking and writing. You cannot be a “jack-of-all-trades.” These colleges want young people who are excellent at just one or two things. They want Math Olympiad winners, international debate champions, chess prodigies, etc. If you spread yourself thin, admission officers cannot picture where you will be 20 years from now. Remember: All that these universities ultimately care about is producing future leaders in their respective industries.

Fortunately, you do not need to be on the extreme level of “Math Olympiad winner.” I was president of two clubs (Model United Nations and Debate) and ran a blog and that was it. But you must orient your application around just one or two passions and excel in related extracurriculars to demonstrate your competence. That is crucial.

Then we get to the Common App essay, which is far and away the most significant part of the application. Here is where most kids fail. They write about unimaginative and cliched topics like going on a mission trip, volunteering at a homeless shelter, or participating in robotics club. Sorry, but at least 5,000 other kids are writing about that. You have just reduced your chances of admission to less than 1%, even if you have a perfect SAT score.

You need to set yourself apart and designate yourself as a future high achiever in the eyes of admission officers. You need to say something in your essay that stands out immediately. Naturally, only you can know what that “something” is. But it must relate to your passion in some capacity.

In high school, I realized I enjoyed public speaking and writing because they allowed me to push boundaries by advancing bold ideas. I get bored very quickly with the status quo. When Trump ran for president in 2016, he challenged the system through the power of his words, which inspired me. That’s what I wrote about in my Common App essay.

The best advice I can give you is to dig deep into your passion and discover what energizes you. What motivates you? What excites you the most? If you can connect that excitement to a unique experience, even better. The key is to be as authentic and memorable as possible, because that will make you stand out.

Of course, you need excellent test scores and grades. But don’t obsess over the numbers. As long as you score in the top 5% of test takers, you’re fine. I scored a 36 on the ACT and graduated with a 4.0 GPA ... but so do thousands of other students applying to these colleges. Spend most of your time instead pursuing your passion and writing your essay. I cannot overstate the importance of that.

If you follow these steps, I sincerely believe you will get into at least one Ivy League or top school. Yes, these universities are biased against you because you’re a white guy. But even greater than their disdain for white people is their need to claim future high achievers — because that is their entire business model. Take advantage of that.

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EXCLUSIVE: Comer Presses Left-Wing Org Sued By Terror Victims For Allegedly Aiding Hamas

House Oversight Chairman James Comer pressed the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) on Monday to cooperate with congressional oversight related to any possible funding of pro-Hamas propaganda and encampments on college campuses across the U.S. The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the letter, a follow-up to a letter Comer sent May 29 in which […]

EXCLUSIVE: Comer Targets Funding For Radical, Pro-Hamas Student Group Backing Campus Protests

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer sent a letter Wednesday to National Students for Justice in Palestine, calling on them to provide the committee with information regarding any possible funding of pro-Hamas propaganda and encampments on college campuses across the U.S. The Daily Caller first obtained a copy of the letter, in which Comer says […]

MIT Breaks With DEI Insanity In Faculty Hiring, But Is It Too Late?

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-6.10.07 AM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Screenshot-2024-05-16-at-6.10.07%5Cu202fAM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]MIT is getting rid of DEI statements in its faculty hiring process, but it is likely too late to reverse the damage already done.