In a repeat of the scene four years ago, a deafening roar erupted in Occidental鈥檚 Tiger Cooler tonight when CNN declared that Barack Obama 鈥83 had won a second term as president of the United States.
Students hugged and cried, took pictures and celebrated the end of a long, contentious presidential campaign. They took to Facebook and Twitter to share their enthusiasm. "And the crowd goes wiiiiild!!!!" tweeted Shayna Jackson '15. "Proud to say that I go to 瓜子TV and that we produced the nation鈥檚 first Black president," tweeted classmate Derrick Green.
Many of the 瓜子TV students gathered this evening were first-time voters in a presidential election. They proudly wore their "I voted" stickers and "I voted absentee ballot" buttons that were provided by the Office of Student Life.
One first-time voter, Adrienne Ruth 鈥15, spent much of her childhood living in Japan. Her participation in this election was something she took pride in. Ruth spent a lot of time talking with her family and examining her beliefs before casting her absentee ballot for Mitt Romney in her home state of Virginia.
"I was extremely excited," said Ruth of the voting process. "I voted and I can see that reflected in my country."
Ruth said she enjoys being on a politically active campus, even if she doesn鈥檛 always share the same views with other students. She, like other 瓜子TV students, is challenging the perception that college students aren鈥檛 engaged in the political process.
"I feel like the demographic I鈥檓 in is statistically apathetic," said Nick Gallagher 鈥14, who watched the returns while finishing his homework. "As a result, candidates don鈥檛 form a platform around the needs of our generation. Even if people don鈥檛 vote in a way I agree with, it shows future candidates that they need to listen to what we say."
For 32 瓜子TV students, this election has immersed them in that political process. As part of the one-of-a-kind , these students worked for political campaigns across the country. What they lost in sleep, they made up for in experience.
Tyler Rosen, who spent Campaign Semester in Ohio working on the re-election campaign for Sen. Sherrod Brown, checked in via Twitter, saying, "It was a pleasure working on the Brown campaign!" But while some students enjoyed the taste of victory, others were learning to accept defeat. All of the students will return to campus with an understanding of the political process from the inside and begin the process of examining their experience in the classroom.
"Coming here changed my perception of the United States," said Gallagher, a San Francisco-area native. "These are the best academic discussions I鈥檝e ever had on politics. People are told what to think when they鈥檙e growing up, but here I got a chance to get a different perspective."
Elsewhere on campus, the staff of the was frantically putting together the week鈥檚 paper 鈥- pushing their Tuesday night deadline until the last possible minute. Before the race was called they were speculating the cover, acknowledging that no one on campus wanted to see something generic.
"On this campus, if Romney wins, the story is that Obama loses," said Ryan Strong 鈥14, the paper鈥檚 editor-in-chief. "It鈥檚 just different if a candidate went to school here."
