Students, staff and faculty gathered together to watch a big screen television broadcast live history.
Anna Nowotny
-Graphic Design Editor –
January 20, 2009 was a day of firsts.
It was the first day of the spring semester at Meramec. It was also the first time that a black man would be inaugurated as the president of the United States.
Throughout most of the morning students busily made their way to classes or waited in line to register, but by 10:55 a.m. the commotion ceased and the lobby of the Lecture Hall on campus swelled with nearly 100 spectators.
Students, staff and faculty gathered together to watch a big screen television broadcast live history.
Walking into the same location around 9:30 a.m., it didn’t look as if anything significant was to take place later that morning. Only one person sat watching the television that hung from the spiral staircase descending into the lobby. Rebecca Myers, mother of a first year Meramec student, had pulled a chair directly in front of the screen.
Little by little, students gathered around her, pulling over vacant chairs and benches. Soon after, two staff members added more seats to the impromptu auditorium.
Even more transformative than the arrangement of the furniture, was not only the experience of being in the presence of a leader, but also of being in the presence of so many people with so much hope and expectation.
First year student Chandra Dudley was struck by what she called “the theme of equality” in Obama’s inauguration speech. For her, he represents more than the average politician.
Dudley said Obama stands for the fundamental values that this country is based on. He said it is Obama spirit that moves a whole country.
“We can, instead of I can” resonated with business and nursing major, Roger Sims, who remarked, “I like that [Obama] is including us … we are being called upon to support him.”
Even so, Obama has his work cut out for him. Sims hopes that he can “fix the financial crisis to prevent the raising of tuition and student loans, and prevent education from failing in this country.”
Also among the crowd of spectators was a cadet from Washington University’s ROTC who declined to comment on the events.
The day will be remembered as a lesson in living history, a fitting experience for the college campus.
