Students, a faculty member and a prominent alumnus are expected to be among a record crowd of as many as 3 million converging on the nation’s capital Tuesday when Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president.
Leaders of the Black Student Union have chartered a bus to take up to 55 students to Washington, D.C., to be in proximity of the swearing-in of the nation’s first African-American president.
Though they don’t have tickets to the event itself, “it’s a big deal for us,” said Nadia Alexis ’09, who along with Arkeisha Pace ’09, her co-chair of the Black Student Union, helped organize the eight-hour trip. “We have a chance to be a part of history.”
A line began forming hours before seats became available early Monday morning, and slots filled quickly, with a waiting list of nearly 50 people. The group will leave after midnight Monday and return 24 hours later.
Brad Hays, assistant professor of political science, scored a coveted ticket to the inauguration through friends. Hays taught for several years at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he befriended Dina Titus, a colleague in the political science department, and her husband, Tom Wright, a professor of history. Titus, the former minority leader for the Nevada state senate, was elected to Congress on the same night as Obama’s historic win.
"I expect to be standing for a long time,” said Hays. “But I’m just so excited to have the ‘golden ticket.’ ” He will bunk with friends from his days as a graduate student at the University of Maryland. He expects the atmosphere in the D.C. area to be “slightly insane.”
“It’s a moment in history,” said Hays. “There was a part of me that didn’t want to deal with the mob scene. But when you think about the moment in time, and you have an appreciation for history and those great moments, you want to be there.”
Besides, Hays said, “I like a good party and this is going to be great party.”
Plans are also under way for Union students, faculty and staff who are unable to get to Washington to watch the ceremony at various spots on campus.
Perhaps no one with a Union connection will have a better view of the inaugural than U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie ’59 of Hawaii. Abercrombie, who earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Union and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Student Council, was friendly with Obama’s mother and father while all three attended the University of Hawaii in the 1960s. He has known Obama since he was born.
“Hawaii, its people, its diversity, and its spirit of aloha helped to shape President-elect Obama as a boy and young man growing up in these islands,” Abercrombie writes on his Web site. “When he ascends those stairs to the Inaugural platform at the U.S. Capitol, the people of Hawaii and his immediate ohana will follow his steps, as he assumes the reigns of an office for which he has worked so hard to attain and realizes a dream that he and Americans have only envisioned until this day.”
Read More
