By Emily Silva
Just after national TV networks announced Sen. Barack Obama as the next president of the United States, Elon students stormed out of the Oaks apartments, into the parking lot, across the street and out onto main campus. A sea of camera flashes and screaming people flooded the campus sidewalks.
“I can’t be more happy,” Jack Treanor, a freshman from Maryland, said. “I’m one hundred percent with Obama.”
“We contributed to a historic event,” Hannah Berg, a freshman from Connecticut, said. “I’m so excited!”
Students joined together in happiness over Obama
“My vote really counted because I voted in N.C.,” Berg said. She chose to vote here because Connecticut is typically a Democratic state, she said.
Sydney Hass, a freshman from Boston, said she voted in N.C., as well. “It’s really awesome to come out here,” she said. Hass expressed happiness over “young people getting into voting.”
The group from the Oaks parking lot grew as more and more students streamed out of dorm rooms and apartments along the way to the center of campus. Students held hands, hugged one another and yelled out “My president is black! How about yours?” and “We did it!”
“This is the first time I’ve had any type of belief our country can get away from the race thing,” Frances Gee, a junior from North Carolina, said.
Sophomore Katie Lampe cheered for Obama.
“I’m so inarticulate,” she said, explaining that her excitement was inhibiting her ability to put sentences together.
The mass of bodies finally stopped on the quad outside Belk Library and the Mosley Center, while students chanted, “O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma!”
Students jumped up on one another, screaming and crying out of elation.
“It’s about time,” Brandon Ward, a junior from Florida, said. “He’s black!” Ward said he watched the entire news coverage of Election Day. He said he flipped back and forth through all the major news networks until Obama’s win was declared.
“I was watching my boy!” she exclaimed. “It was awesome!”
Twitter: After Obama’s victory, Elon students are hopeful their new President-Elect will change some current policies.
It’s nice to see the journalist’s reaction here – that you didn’t merely watch television or join your friends and be a celebrant but you instead recognized the moment’s value and recorded one of the most memorable events of your lifetime in the role of a journalist, making a difference for those who weren’t there and those who were and assisting in the formation of a historic documentation of your time, place and people.
Emily, thanks for letting me see what happened on campus immediately after the declaration of the presidential election. I enjoyed watching the videos and reading what students said. Way to go!
I wonder what they actually expect him to do? How will his presidency different from any other Democrat, in terms of policy?