Online-only special: Presidential inauguration brings students together

By Melissa Tsang     1/22/09 6:00pm

Lines for apple pie and coffee stood still in the Rice Memorial Center's Grand Hall on Tuesday morning as the 150 to 200 students attending the Inaugural Viewing Party paused to watch Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America during a live television broadcast of the presidential inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C. Time stood still for many who felt as if they were not just viewing a routine process of democracy but a historic moment in American history.The inauguration ceremony took place before a record-breaking audience of more than a million people who crowded the streets of Washington and on the same Mall where civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech during the 1963 March on Washington.

Here at Rice, the Grand Hall broke out in lengthy applause and loud cheers to welcome America's first black president.

President David Leebron said people from all perspectives cannot help but feel Obama's historic moment and experience a sense of unity absent from previous inaugurations.

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"If there's a noteworthy thing it's the extent to which the people who didn't support Obama have come to have a sense of hope about this administration and share a sense of a moment in history even if they themselves wouldn't have chosen this particular individual," Leebron said. "Of course, the last two inaugurations were times of deep division in the United States, and one doesn't - other than some sort of right wing talk radio - really sense that deep division right now. I think people are tired of division."

In his 18-minute Inaugural Address, Obama acknowledged the difficult political and economic times the country is experiencing not only abroad but also at home.

"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood," he said. "Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age."

On a day that the stock market fell again, Obama noted the effects of the country's economic decline and domestic issues, from the waning housing and job markets to the education system and costly health care. He urged the country to come together in spite of times of uncertainty and despair.

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many," Obama said. "They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met."

Leebron said Obama's inaugural address sought not only to unite the country but also to recognize the realities of the country's situation as well.

"It was a speech aimed primarily at bringing Americans together and restoring our confidence in who we are, what we stand for and what we can achieve," he said. "If one looks at this administration, one sees much more certainly than the last eight years a desire to bring people together rather than to pursue a particular agenda. I think he's willing to give up some particular things to achieve that."

Wiess College junior Caitllin Miller appreciated Obama's sense of accord which she views as a departure from former president George W. Bush's more polarized presidency.

"My great hope is that he will be a force of inclusion rather than a force of division," Miller said. "I feel like in the course of George Bush's administration, American culture has become a lot more liberal or conservative, evangelical or not, like very divided. I really like Obama's message of unity."

Obama assured the public of his departure from the previous administration and his intent to usher in a new age of accountability.

"On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics," he said. "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task."

Hanszen College junior Teresa Bayer expressed confidence in the newly sworn-in president.

"He's very intelligent, and he has a lot of great ideas," she said. "He's really new, which is a good thing, but at the same time, there's that potential of not knowing what he's going to do. But I have a lot of faith in him and I think a lot of people have faith in him because he's different."

The significance of Obama's inauguration surpasses racial barriers and testifies to Obama's character, Miller said.

"I think that the thing that people focus on, for obvious reasons, is the fact that he's the first mixed race and/or African American man to be elected to office," she said. "And I also think that in terms of modern politics, because he's so young and he's a visionary that he is -- the traditional split between the Democratic and the Republican Party that was forged during the Vietnam War -- he doesn't care because he wasn't around for that.

Several students predicted which issues would be priorities in the new administration. Rice Young Democrats President Taylor Cooper said the conflict in the Middle East is one of the most important issues Obama would have to address.

"I think everyone thinks that it's the economy, but I'm under the impression that the economy is cyclical," Cooper, a Martel College senior, said. "He can do as much in his power to fix it but that can only go so far as far as the market and different things. I think some of the more pressing issues are definitely the Middle East, which is a big, big issue and will continue to be a big issue."

Solutions to environmental issues should be nonpartisan, Cooper suggested.

"It's the only way to fix this, and I think Barack Obama has a good concept that you have to compromise with people to get big issues solved," she said.

As Obama said, "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."

The presidential inauguration viewing party was hosted by the Rice Student Association, Graduate Student Association, President Leebron, Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman and Dean of Graduate and Postdocotral Studies Paula Sanders.

Leebron said that he was pleased to have been able to spend it among students.

"It was thrilling to be there with our students, with this diverse group of talented people who truly are the future of America and the world," Leebron said. "Their sense of both enthusiasm and pride was palpable. There is no place I would have rather been for the inauguration. And furthermore, it was much warmer than Washington.

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