CU and the election

Published: Nov 16, 2012

After a hard-fought battle, the election is finally over. On campus, a slew of campaign-related events—including a debate between Romney’s economic adviser and Business School Dean Glenn Hubbard and Obama’s economic adviser John Schnur—culminated in a number of Election Night festivities. While many students decided to stay inside and watch election coverage from the comfort of their own dorm rooms, others braved the cold and turned out to watch a screening of the returns on Low Steps. Others were lucky enough to be at the heart of the action, including Spectator’s own Henry Willson and Finn Vigeland, thanks to a generous gift from an alum. Willson, Spec’s photo editor, made it to Obama’s victory party at McCormick Place in Chicago, where he snagged some fantastic shots of the celebration:

 

Vigeland, Spec’s news editor, was also at the Obama celebration and managed to capture the sentiment of the crowd, catching sound bytes from Obama’s victory speech as well as comments from various supporters.

“I’m so excited, I don’t know what to do,” said Carla Fox, 50, of Chicago, as the crowd awaited Obama’s victory speech. “I’ve been volunteering since the summer. I’ve been calling for a long time. It’s been a real positive experience. Hard work really does pay off.”

Vigeland also wrote another great reflection on the election, entitled “Reporter’s notebook: At Obama HQ, getting a look at volunteers, media in action.”

This marks the 34th presidential election the Columbia Daily Spectator has been around for during its 135-year history. Way back when, students would tune into WKCR for election results, but these days students are more likely to follow the political process via live-stream or live-blog on their laptops, Facebook, Tumblr, or, in the case of Spec staff, possibly all of the above:

Twitter was another social media platform that was especially busy come election night. Using the hashtag “CUVotes2012” students expressed joy or dismay about the events that unfolded over such a tumultuous night. The best tweets were rounded up in a graphic posted the next morning:

What was election season like when you were a student? We’d love for you to share your stories! Find us, as always, on Twitter and Facebook.