Kamala Harris Will Spend Election Night at Howard University. Here’s What Students Think.
Credit: Kent Nishimura / Stringer / Getty Images News- The Harris-Walz campaign will hold its election night watch party at Howard University, Kamala Harris’ alma mater.
- Vice President Harris graduated from Howard University in 1986 with a bachelor of arts degree in economics and political science.
- The university will be closed on Election Day and have remote classes through Nov. 7. Normal operations are expected to resume on Friday, Nov. 8.
- Howard students told BestColleges there is excitement on campus about what a Harris win could mean for Howard University.
- Not all Howard students are happy about the event, however, citing safety concerns and inconvenience to their routines.
Vice President Kamala Harris will spend election night at Howard University, her alma mater, marking a first for any presidential candidate and for one of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
“This is a momentous occasion, as it will be the first time in modern history that a presidential election night event will be hosted on a college or university campus,” Howard President Dr. Ben Vinson III said in a message to the university community.
“We are incredibly proud of our alumna, Kamala Harris, who has already made history as the first woman of color and HBCU graduate to serve as our nation’s vice president. We are also honored that she has chosen Howard as the place to potentially make history again.”
The election night event is not sponsored by the university and is a private, space-limited event hosted by the Harris-Walz campaign. However, the institution says it will be notifying the community about election night events open to students on campus.
Students told BestColleges that there is excitement about having Harris on campus, regardless of the election results.
“The vibes right now are very jovial, but with a hint of caution,” Khariss Bender, a third-year journalism major and political science minor, told BestColleges. “When she’ll be here on campus there is going to be a world of people who will have eyes on Howard specifically. We’re very excited to have this kind of attention because truly having a degree from Howard will eventually become synonymous [with] this.”
Elandrea Baker, a second-year political science major and sociology minor, described the feeling on campus as an “excited nervousness.” While there is increased security and police presence on campus, including the Secret Service, Baker says students are excited to have Harris on campus and potentially celebrate her victory.
“If Kamala were to win, it’d be amazing to be a part of the education that got [her] to where she is. I would be so grateful to be on this campus and to be a part of that, even if it [is] just that I’m going to get a degree from the same place that she earned a degree.”
Howard Students Excited, Frustrated With Rollout of Election Night Events
According to The Hilltop, Howard’s student-run newspaper, the university canceled classes on Tuesday to encourage student voting and election participation.
Classes will continue remotely through Nov. 7, as Harris’ campaign may extend its presence at Howard if the results are not called on election night. Normal operations are expected to resume on Friday, Nov. 8.
Despite the historic nature of Tuesday night’s election event at Howard, many students are not entirely happy, finding it inconvenient and potentially unsafe.
“The way that this event is impacting the actual students at Howard is not great,” third-year finance major Jared Keys told BestColleges.
Keys described a “progressive buildup of security and infrastructure” on campus following the university’s confirmation of the event.
“The correspondence that we’ve gotten [from Howard] pretty much told us that we’re not welcome on the campus for this entire event, and to just stay away,” Keys said.
A number of students anonymously echoed Keys’ sentiments on an app called Fizz, which Howard students frequently use to share on-campus happenings.
In screenshots obtained by BestColleges, students complained that the event was not open to students and accused the school of being “performative” in assembling the event in just two days.
In a message to the Howard community on Nov. 3, Vinson said that the university “recognize[s] the potential inconvenience to our campus community,” but decided to honor the campaign’s request as it was “the correct choice in this historic moment.”
As historic as it may be, the added attention on the university also comes with significant security risks.
Multiple students told BestColleges that they fear a similar event to the 2020 insurrection happening either on or near their campus, which is located less than three miles from the U.S. Capitol.
“What we’ve seen from this entire election is that just having a [Howard alum] on the ballot definitely opens doors for students,” said journalism student Bender. “However, it also kind of airs a little caution because of the threats that we’ve seen.”
Howard Is a Cornerstone for Harris and Her Candidacy
Howard has been the backdrop for multiple important Harris events, including where she formally announced her campaign for president in 2020 and held her first press conference.
She has often spoken fondly about her alma mater, discussing the many lessons she learned there in the 1980s.
“The thing that Howard taught me is that you can do any collection of things, and not one thing to the exclusion of the other, “she told Howard Magazine. “You could be homecoming queen and valedictorian. There are no false choices at Howard.”
While there, Harris represented first-year students on the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council, became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and served on the institution’s debate team.
“That was the beauty of Howard,” she wrote in her 2019 memoir. “Every signal told students that we could be anything — that we were young, gifted and Black, and we shouldn’t let anything get in the way of our success.”