In what seems like a campus-wide group hug, the University of Michigan's president distributes an unusual political-shock letter to students, faculty and everyone else in his Ann Arbor domain.
Without mentioning the president-elect, Mark Schlissel essentially suggests: "Stay focused, we'll get through this."
"It will take quite some time to completely absorb the results from yesterday’s election," he writes in the second of 14 paragraphs, his closest allusion to what a difference a day makes. Schlissel sees a need to "understand the full implications and discern the long-term impact on our university and our nation."
More immediately, in the aftermath of a close and highly contentious election we continue to embrace our most important responsibility as a university community.
Our responsibility is to remain committed to education, discovery and intellectual honesty – and to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are at our best when we come together to engage respectfully across our ideological differences; to support ALL who feel marginalized, threatened or unwelcome.
"The University of Michigan will always be a welcoming place for all members of society," Mark Schlissel vows. (University of Michigan photo)
Schlissel, a biochemist who took office in July 2014, urges a long-view perspective:
Elections are often times of great change, but the values we stand for at U-M have been shaped over the course of nearly 200 years.
Pointedly, he closes the 600-word attempt at reassurance by pledging "that the University of Michigan will always be a welcoming place for all members of society." He lets readers imagine a subtext that could say ". . . despite the president-elect's views."
Unease clearly is felt at UM, as elsewhere. An election follow-up in The Michigan Daily quotes senior Stuart Inahuazo:
“This election has shown me that the United States is not welcome to other people and other cultures,” he said.
“It has shown that people have come out of the shadows by supporting an individual who has tarnished the culture of America and has hurt me on the basis of my Latino heritage. It has spit in the face of my Latino culture.”
A Muslim freshman, Arwa Gayar, tells the student paper she worries what "having a president that openly targets minorities will do to this country."
