University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

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Sophomore Me i Bright urg¬ es UA students to vote early through the Democracy on Wheels program. The program ran buses between campus and the Washington County Court¬ house, providing students with an easy way to vote early and evade long waits at the polls. Photo courtesy of the Students sit at a booth set up to encourage fellow students to vote. Various RSOs set up weeks before Election Day in order to to make the process of regis¬ tering and voting smoother for members of the UA community. Photo courtesy of the Arkansas Traveler 28 Student Life

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While some students celebrated the “W ” others looked to the future with heavy hearts and troubled minds Emily Miiholen UA students watched and waited as did the rest of America. With anticipation and emotion running high, students gathered with friends and tuned their tele¬ visions to the news channels. The campus was on fire - divided down the middle in terms of who should win, but in agreement on the fact that all students should be in¬ volved. For many stu¬ dents, 2004 was the first major election in which they could vote. So perhaps the desire to perform their patriotic duty was many students’ driving force. But even more than that, students were concerned about the state of our country and the direction in which it was headed. Some students believed in and supported President Bush and his plan for our nation, while many other students believed it was time for a change. But regardless of political af¬ filiation, one thing was certain: students at the UA were passion¬ ate, involved and interested in the 2004 election. For weeks prior to the arrival of Election Day, stu¬ dents encouraged one another to become involved, to help deter¬ mine the future of America - to vote. The campus embraced the elec¬ tion and made it as painless as possible for students to participate in the process. Months before the election, student organizations set up booths on campus reminding students to register to vote and providing the necessary forms to make the task simple and fast. The Democracy on Wheels pro¬ gram went even further to ease the burden of getting to the polls that on-campus students sometimes faced. The program ran buses be¬ tween campus and the Washing¬ ton County Courthouse and was a big hit with members of the on- campus population who wanted to vote early and evade the long lines on Election Day. election’ ’04 The political spirit was alive on the UA campus far beyond the realm of encouraging voter partici¬ pation. The Young Democrats and College Republicans held political debates prior to the election and watch parties on Election Night. The Associated Student Gov¬ ernment even conducted a mock election, in which John Kerry won by a narrow margin - 623 students for Kerry; 548 for Bush, showing exactly how divided the student body actually was. And when it was all said and done, and the final votes were counted, the campus was just as divided as when it had all began. While some students celebrated President Bush’s victory, others cried. And the following day as students watched Kerry concede and Bush accept another term in office, the campus was quiet. The sense of division was more apparent than ever - the campus mocked the torn nation. And stu¬ dents’ faces, both the joyful and the somber, said what words could not express. Election ‘04 4 m 27

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College Republicans smile as they watch the reports come in from the last states on Election Night. Members of the organiza¬ tion celebrated President Bush ' s victory well into the morning hours. Photo courtesy of the Arkansas Traveler a member of the Young Democrats, reacts in despair as it appears that Presi¬ dent Bush will be re-elected. As Election Night moved into the following morning and the out¬ come became increasingly evi¬ dent, democratic students lost hope and hung their heads in the midst of defeat. Photo courtesy of the Arkansas Traveler Election ‘04 29