November Event Coverage: It's Election Day!!!

By Tanisha Hamilton Eng 336.002

      On November 6, 2012 at 7:00 p.m, Frostburg State University students gathered in the Lane Center's Armah to watch the presidential election on CNN via projection. The event was hosted by the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha and student organization N.A.A.C.P. Students began arriving in the Armah at 7 p.m. sharp,  upon their arrival, they were greeted at the door by members of Alpha Phi Alpha and they asked everyone who attended the viewing to fill out a imitation ballot. Refreshments were served while people sat next to friends and engaged in conversation about the election. The room was filled with energy once the ballots were being counted and the news reporters revealed who won which state. The majority of people in the Armah were supporters of President Barack Obama and when things weren't looking too good in Obama's favor, students began to "boo" and walk out of the room.

     Towards the middle of the Presidential election one of the members of Alpha Phi Alpha came on stage and announced the results of the imitation ballots. The audience voted for Barack Obama to gain a second term as president and they voted yes in support of all of the questions asked on the ballot. Although the silence was broken and filled with joy during the fake election results, everyone was quickly reminded that the results were not valid and the hostility quickly returned when Governor Romney had retaken the lead in the election. More students began to leave the room as they were not pleased from what they were seeing, some people actually began to shout out "Shut up!" as the small number of Romney fans started to cheer. Mass Comm. Major, Sade' Brown stated, "I've never been so scared in my life, I feel like if Romney wins our lives are over! Period!" Many students felt the same way as Brown and you could see the anguish on their faces as President Obama began to fall behind in the election.
     Students began to leave once it seemed as though Romney would become our next President and the Armah had appeared to be almost empty. Accounting major and member of Phi Beta Sigma, Kelvin Lyons, stated that "Even though it seems like Obama may lose the election, I believe that he will catch up soon enough because Governor Romney needs Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida... and he's already losing Ohio, so in my opinion there's no need for the Obama supporters to worry. Besides, this is a phenomenal event where students can come together and discuss political issues so no matter what the outcome may be, at least we all came out to show our support and we can say that we learned a thing or two from this event."  Not everyone was as optimistic as Lyons, many students began packing their belongings to avoid seeing unwanted results but someone shouted "Obama won!!!".
      Everyone quickly looked at the projector to see that Obama had obtained 273 electoral votes, Re-electing him as President of the United States for a second term. Biology major, Rudy Yung-Hoi said, "I'm glad Obama won because I was worried about my education and how I would be able to fund it because Mitt Romney was not in favor of student loans and other forms of financial aid." Students were filled with joy and eager to see that President Obama would gain a second term as President. The good news began trending on multiple social networks and local news networks such as Fox, NBC, and CBS. This event was indeed a phenomenal one and the students should continue to have special events like this for many years to come in order for each generation to become more involved with politics and social issues.