When I planned out the schedule for my fall semester graduate statistics course back in August, I remember pausing, for a moment, over today’s date. Did I want to plan for a regular meeting the day after this election? In many of the best-case scenarios, the students and I would be thinking more about an ongoing vote count than whatever topic I slotted in for the day. But I had hope, and only so many days for the class, and I figured I could always make a call based on what actually happened.

It turns out my hope was misplaced, and we knew it before I finally went to bed last night.

So this morning, before I could bring myself to eat breakfast, I composed an email to the class. It’s turned out to be most of what I have to say this morning, so I’m posting it here for posterity, or maybe for other faculty who are still trying to figure out how to say some of this:

Hi, folks — I’m writing after a pretty poor night’s sleep, having stayed up late enough to catch the early indications of the election outcome. I’m worried, as I am sure all of you are, about what this means for people we care about, and for many of the things we may have assumed (I had assumed) about our future. That future looks much less certain to me than it did yesterday, for the freedom and safety of many, many people, and for a great deal of the infrastructure we depend on to do science — data collection and repositories, libraries, grant funding agencies, education.

Whatever happens, I want you to know that science — working to try to understand the truth of the world around us, whatever that truth may be — is itself a statement of values, that knowing the truth of the world is worth our time and effort. It’s very possibly going to become harder to trust the information we get from many sources we’re used to trusting, but as scientists we try to build understanding in the face of a world that is not always trustworthy. The methods we’re studying this semester are tools for building that understanding, and I think knowing how to use them is all the more important now. Even if it becomes harder to do our work as scientists, these methods have use in the places where we can make a difference, in city council meetings, state legislatures and agencies, and in the public conversation.

All of you will have different reactions to process, and sources of worry that I can’t anticipate. I want to make space for that. For some of us (me, I think), focusing on the work we can do here and now will be helpful — but others may need time away. Luis and Sacha are scheduled to present today, and I have some more variations of generalized linear models to tell you about. I’ll be at our classroom at the usual time this afternoon, and if you want to give a presentation you’ve prepared, I’ll be glad to see it and evaluate it for grading. If a majority of you come and want to learn about testing hypotheses about frequency data today, I’ll deliver that lecture. But if you want to take some time away today, we can reschedule presentations and lectures. 

You don’t need to tell me what you want to do in advance, or even make the call before our meeting time. I’ll update you all with plans for our next meeting, based on what we do this afternoon.

Thanks,

Jeremy