Obama victory sparks student celebration

At 2 a.m. Wednesday, neuroscience junior David Wrobleski found himself dancing in the streets with people of all backgrounds with the same reason to celebrate — the election of Barack Obama as president.

Wrobleski, who campaigned for Obama as a part of Students for Obama , said he got a call from a friend who said people were celebrating in the street near Cedar and Riverside avenues on the West Bank.

“It was inspiring to see,” he said. “There were old white people, blacks, Hispanics, immigrants all together for the same purpose.”

Wrobleski was not alone in his celebration of Obama’s presidential win. Many people watched the election unfold, experiencing different emotions as Obama was named the next U.S. president.

As the Bob Dylan concert at Northrop Auditorium ended Tuesday night — within 30 minutes of TV networks projecting Obama's victory — concertgoers gathered at the entrance to watch the news projected onto a screen hanging from the third-floor balcony.

Young and old stopped and began cheering, creating an echoing effect bouncing off the foyer's marble walls.

As the capacity crowd spilled out onto the steps of Northrop, a man played the conga drums, as a group of about 100 to 200 younger people gathered, jumping up and down chanting "Obama, Obama," "U.S.A., U.S.A." and "yes we can" while others stopped, simply watching the celebratory scene.

One woman jumped up and down, hugging those around her shouting, "We did it, we did it," and "I can't believe we did it."

While watching from home, sociology junior Allison Berth shared a moment of silence with her friends before their emotions could catch up with reality.

“We all just started to scream and cry, as corny as it sounds,” she said.

Berth, who also campaigned for Obama, said she believed many students were emotional about the win because they had been so invested in the campaign.

“He had an honesty that I’d never seen in another candidate before,” she said. “He was able to explain how a lot of students felt about politics.”

Young people haven’t been excited about politics in awhile, family social science junior Monica Schenstrom said.

She said Obama’s campaign made her excited to be a Democrat again and she believes he can inspire American citizens to realize that despite differences, they all want what’s best for the country.

“It was kind of this snowball effect, a contagious excitement that traveled from one person to the next,” she said.

But, for those he has inspired, Obama has a lot of expectations to live up to, Berth said. As his supporter, she knows she has to continue to be involved.

“I feel like [Obama’s election] means that he has a lot of responsibility now, but I like that he’s putting a lot of that responsibility back on the American people who voted for him,” she said.

For now, Wrobleski said the image of everyone coming together and dancing in the streets, not only here but around the world, reminds him of history we still talk about today.

“Last night kind of fulfilled Martin Luther King’s dream in a way,” he said. “It may be too bold of a statement, but it was something people would have never seen 40 years ago.”

-Jake Grovum contributed to this report