U of T students were glued to election-night TV, but most weren’t going to be directly affected by the outcome. For American students, the outcome was a little closer to home. Here are some of the things that were going on at American campuses on Tuesday night, as seen in late editions of American student media.
The rancour that characterized the campaign showed up on a few campuses, as young Republicans and Democrats took turns griping about each other. The Daily Texan-the newspaper of that other U of T, the University of Texas-reported that in the final days of the campaign, “liberals had a louder voice on campus.” The U of Texas Democrats representative Emily Cadik said “Most people who walk by can attest that they’ve rarely seen the College Republicans or the Young Conservatives out [publicizing], but they’ve seen us out there registering voters and talking about candidates and doing as much as we can.” The president of the U of Texas Republicans, Sachiv Mehta, shot back, “We don’t feel out-shouted by the UDems, but rather by the typical leftist liberal tendencies of the university….Professors and old people come up and chastize us for no particular reason, expel rhetoric, and yell without saying anything of substance.”
One thing everyone could agree on, however, was the need for alcohol. “‘The worse things look, the drunker I’m going to get,’ said B.J. Johnston, a neurobiology sophomore, as he sipped his Budweiser,” wrote the Daily Texan.
Yale graduate students turned the whole occasion into an election-themed banquet. “Earlier in the evening,” the Yale Daily News reported, “students had savoured a themed dinner complete with Kerry’s Boston baked cod, Bush’s Texas BBQ brisket, and Nader’s New England stuffed crunchy squash. [Grad student] Brian Reilly admitted that he ate the brisket, even though he’s an avid Kerry supporter. ‘Maybe I weas trying to get my anger out on Bush by mashing it with my teeth,’ he said.”
Professors got in on the action too. Yale history professor John Merriman was quoted in the Yale Daily News as saying “The real axis of evil is in the White House.”
The Yale paper endorsed Kerry, while somewhat smugly noting that both the presidential candidates were “Yalies,” so that no matter the outcome, a Yale alumni would be in the White House. “We see stark differences in how Bush and Kerry live up to the ideas of their alma mater,” the editorial said. “Yale prides itself on rewarding intellectual curiosity and fostering open debate. And though the White House is not a seminar room, we value a president’s willingness to think critically about his beliefs and subject his proposals to scrutiny. In Bush, we see a president who has been constrained by stubbornly refusing to admit his mistakes or entertain alternative ideas. But in these uncertain times, we need a president with the ability to be both strong and open-minded-a president like John Kerry.” Even “Yalies” have to be wrong sometimes, it seems.
