I imagine that being a college student during any election is interesting, but the election this year was particularly exciting. The campus buzz during midterm elections two years ago was definitely not as loud as it was this year. Most of us voted in our first presidential election. It seemed like many students thought the stakes were higher this year than they were two years ago or in other recent presidential elections. Well before the election, many students had settled on a major candidate, and most Midd kids seemed to be supporting Obama and Biden.
Even after the election is over, the trend towards one political consensus, at least among my friends, does not mean that we have any shortage of conversation or debate over the issues. Somewhere in the middle of schoolwork, loads of clubs and teams, students here find time to read about the different policy proposals and to keep up with post-election developments. During the election, many canvassed for the ticket that they supported. It was not uncommon to hear about students who drove to the battleground state of New Hampshire on the weekends to knock on doors and encourage people to vote for their candidate of choice. A lot of Middlebury students were active in calling undecided voters to talk about why their candidate deserved and needed that voter’s support. The College Dems weekly phone-athons in Hillcrest, and on Election Day, they made 6143 calls from Coltrane Lounge during their “All Day Phone Bank for Barack” event.
On Tuesday night, I headed down to a packed Grille to join other students and faculty members watching the results as polls started to close. It was exciting to see the results of the election online before they were even announced on major networks that were projected onto large screens on stage. When I arrived, Professors Dickinson and Johnson, both from the Political Science Department, were discussing the merits of McCain’s decision to have Palin as his running mate. Over the course of the night, they announced the results of the presidential election in certain states as students called them out, and they explained the importance of specific Senate and House races this year. Sometimes they even asked students to stop using their laptops because they were overloading the wireless network. The professors could not get online to analyze the data and at one point the projection feed even cut out.
After the results from Ohio came in, Professor Dickinson announced that Barack Obama was our President-elect. This was long before any of the networks called the election. Virtually every student at the Grille cheered when they heard this. Later on that night and the next day, the energy was the same. Not much else seemed to matter. Many of my friends and I had midterms the following night, and needless to say, we did not get a ton of studying done that day.
As college students, I think a lot of us saw our futures tied to the outcome of this election. This is particularly true as many of us graduate in the next year. The fact that Obama is our next president makes some of my friends a little less eager to move abroad after college. For now, I think we’re focusing on how to continue being politically involved, and maybe on plans to attend the Inauguration during J-term.