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Trump will serve as the 45th President of the United States. Photo via Flickr/Michael Vadon.[/caption]
On Nov. 8, the night Donald Trump won the presidential election, SHU students sat huddled around televisions at their respective viewing parties, screaming their support for either Trump or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In the Boland Hall cellar, the majority of those watching the results supported Trump. Meanwhile, in a lounge on the fourth floor of Aquinas, students favored Clinton.
Joe Scialabba, a freshman accounting major, said that he voted, but preferred not to say for whom.
“I don’t like Hillary,” Scialabba said. “I’ll feel terrible if she wins; she’ll be an ineffective leader.”
Scialabba’s friend, Will Hanisch, held a different view.
“I’m as blue as the ocean,” said Hanisch, a freshman diplomacy major. “I’ll be devastated if Trump wins.”
Also in Aquinas, there was a “meeting of the Greens” in a dorm room, where a group of Jill Stein voters gathered.
Teijei Leach, a sophomore political science major, said he hoped a third party candidate received at least 5 percent of the popular vote.
“Clinton is systematic racism, while Trump is blatant racism,” said Leach. “We need to dismantle the two-party system.”
Students ran up and down Aquinas’ hallways, continuing to scream their support for either candidate.
By 9 p.m., Trump was ahead in the popular vote, coming in at 50.4 percent, with Clinton behind at 46.8 percent, according to The New York Times.
Throughout the night, Trump continued to win state after state, and his electoral college numbers continued to rise.
Students started yelling profanities back and forth at each other as the results became clearer.
At 1 a.m., when the final polls closed, it came down to the last few states.
By the time Pennsylvania and Wisconsin’s results were in, it was decided: Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States.
“I have no words,” said Sophie Thon, a freshman diplomacy major, “but this gives me something to fight against in my future career.”
On Wednesday, Nov. 9, a few student associations decided to hold their own protest in the form of a prayer, singing spirituals such as “Wade in the Water.”
The organizations involved were the Muslim Student Association, the African Student Association, the Martin Luther King Leadership Association, the Black Student Union and the Haitian Organization for Promoting Education.
“I should never have to feel angry or uncomfortable in a country that my ancestors built,” said Imani Miles, a freshman political science major.
“Seeing everyone joining together on the Green, people of different skin tones, different religions, different tongues, different walks of life – it made me realize this is not the end” said Rawda Abdelmenam, a junior special education and speech pathology major.
“It is obvious that our nation is divided right now and I want us to focus on what a blessing it is to be an American,” said Chelsea Wilson, a senior marketing and management major and a Senate Speaker in the Student Government Association (SGA). “It is important that regardless of how we feel about our president-elect, that we unite as Americans and ensure that every citizen can keep his or her rights and have access to the American dream.”
Isabel Soisson can be reached at isabel.soisson@student.shu.edu.
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