One Year Later

Will O'Donnell wore it proudly the day after President Barack Obama was elected, but that was the last time he put on the light blue shirt emblazoned with Obama's campaign logo of a rising sun.

"It was like the day after a sporting event when you go out wearing your team's jersey," said O'Donnell, a sophomore broadcast journalism and political science major.

The Syracuse University campus erupted in celebration the night Obama was elected. Several hundred students packed the Quad, shouting and chanting. Students partied in dorms. Drivers honked their horns as they drove through campus.

Looking back, O'Donnell said he was swept away by Obama-mania, especially because he had the opportunity to hear Obama speak and shake his hand in 2007.

"One year later, the glimmer has worn off a little bit," he said.

A year after Obama's election, SU students and faculty have a variety of opinions about his time in office. Many still support him and are proud that he is president, but much of their enthusiasm has faded.

Obama sparked the imagination of young people, said Thomas Raven, a political science professor at SU who studies American politics. Like Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan, Obama can deliver a speech in a football stadium and make audience members feel like he's speaking directly to them, Raven said.

Across party and ethnic lines, college-age voters supported Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Sixty-eight percent of voters ages 18 to 29 cast their ballots for Obama, according to CIRCLE, a nonpartisan group affiliated with Tufts University that studies the civic and political engagement of young people.

"Students viewed McCain as their grandpa, and Obama as their young cool uncle," Raven said.

Obama enthusiasm on campus didn't last forever, though. Raven said he taught a class on Congress last spring and noticed that students who had been excited about the historical significance of the election quickly began to criticize Obama, particularly those students with more conservative leanings who had voted for him.

"Obama was able to initially pull people who were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt," Raven said. "But the reality of politics and the reality of people's basic political interests is that they were only able to go with him so far."

When a president is elected by a large majority, like Obama was, people tend to support the new president because they feel it was the people's choice but eventually "snap back" to their original political convictions, Raven said. When candidates win by close races or pluralities, initial support isn't as great.

More students also became interested in politics last year than in previous elections. According to CIRCLE, 4 to 5 percent more Americans under the age of 30 voted in 2008 than in the previous 2004 election. These students aren't all staying politically involved, though.

Kelly Vesty, a freshman sports management major, said she followed the election in class last year and thought it was cool when Obama won, but she hasn't really paid attention to politics since.

"It doesn't seem like as big of a deal now," Vesty said. "Him actually making it was the most exciting part."

Students tend to be more excited about politics during election years and love to watch the horse race develop, but once the president is elected, the novelty wears off, said Kyle Rapone, president of College Democrats at SU. College Democrats started with 40 students last fall but dwindled to seven by the spring.

"The campus tilts more liberal and you'd think more people would get involved, but unfortunately, Syracuse is kind of apathetic," said Rapone, who said he wishes students understood that real change will happen now, not just when Obama was elected. This fall, Rapone said he's been pleased to see attendance grow to 33 people.

Students for Obama, a club at SU, changed its name to Organizing for America to try to motivate students to stay politically involved and keep student support for the president's agenda on a steady path.

Raven said how students vote during the 2010 midterm elections, when Obama isn't a candidate, will be a clue to how great his legacy is in developing a positive attachment to the Democratic Party among students. Obama has the potential to spark a generation of voters to stay politically involved, but it's too early to tell what his legacy will be, Raven said.

Students also have different opinions about what Obama has accomplished thus far and on whether he's meeting their expectations.

Rapone said College Democrats still support Obama because members know it takes time to pass complicated legislation like health care reform. He said it's too early to say Obama hasn't accomplished anything.

Others feel that with a majority in the House and the Senate, Obama should be doing more by now.

"The cards are stacked in his favor," said Daniel Fitzpatrick, chairman of College Republicans at SU and a junior political science major. "If he wanted to get real stuff done, he should have by now."

Fitzpatrick said if he had voted for Obama, he would be upset with Obama's performance so far. He said he feels people are too interested in what puppy Obama has and where he's vacationing, instead of what he's doing. Fitzpatrick said he's also seen students who voted for Obama become involved in College Republicans this year.

Raven said students' having more diverse opinions about Obama is a positive sign of a healthy democracy. A situation where everyone supported Obama because of his personality and charisma, not his policies, would be dangerous.

Not everyone has maintained their initial Obama enthusiasm, but the historical significance of electing the first black president still excites many.

"The symbolism of him becoming president is so powerful," said Bill Cole, chairman of the Department of African American Studies, who organized a celebration of Obama's election that occurred in September.