Student reaction varies on campus

By SYLAS WRIGHT

Fresno State students gathered near television sets on campus Tuesday night in effort to find out the winner of one of the closest, hardest fought, and most important presidential elections in United States history.

Focusing on the television set in the University Student Union, while slouched on a multi-colored couch, was sophomore civil engineering major Serjio Campos.

“I’m just interested to see how the election will turn out,” said Campos, a first-time voter. “I voted because of the war on terror and the war in Iraq. I’m not opposed to war, but I don’t believe in the way we went about it.”

Alumni showed up as well to watch and wait anxiously for the results.

“The only reason I’m here tonight is to watch the election,” said Craig Brown, a 1994 Fresno State graduate who was among about a dozen viewers in the USU around 8 p.m.

Brown talked about students and their involvement in the election.

“I think as a young person,” he said, “you don’t have the life experience to know the effect of the election until you go out and work. Then you will know how it affects your life.

“The leader right now is Bush, but I’m hoping it will be Kerry.”

Tara Placencia, a junior accounting major, was doing homework with a friend in the Peters Business Building while others watched the election news on TV. Placencia, who said she voted for John Kerry, didn’t mind being too busy to watch the results.

“[The election] will affect my life, and that’s why I vote,” she said. “But the news is the news wherever you are.”

Business management major Anabela Almeida was also in the Peters Business Building, watching the TV there.

“I’m here just to watch the election,” said Almeida, who stressed the importance of voting. “It’s important to vote because it’s a chance to have an opinion and to make things different. In the long-term it will change my life. I think we are heading in the wrong direction, and I think we need the right leader.”

Chris Ebert, a history graduate student and library assistant, checked the election results periodically via the Internet. Ebert, a registered Republican, has strong feelings about the candidates.

“My whole basis for voting was not voting for John Kerry,” he said. “Kerry cannot make up his mind about anything. He has a less-than-stellar record. Bush is just the lesser of the two evils.”

Opinions vary, but one thing remains constant: Americans are eager to know who the next president will be. And they’ll have to wait.

—Erin O’Brien and Danh Ngo contributed to this article.