Students, professors notice smaller groups in Wednesday classes

By KEVIN KOVANICH

Some students found it hard to make it to class Wednesday after late night celebrating following Barack Obama’s presidential victory.

Joe Tedeschi, sophomore Spanish language and literature major, said his 8 a.m. Spanish class had far fewer people than normal. He said out of the 15 students enrolled in the class only about nine were there. Tedeschi said on a normal day, maybe only one person is missing.

Tedeschi credited the low attendance to the large mass of students that congregated on campus after Obama was announced president-elect.

“It looked like the whole campus was out partying or if they weren’t out, they were awake because it was so loud,” Tedeschi said.

One professor also noticed a decrease in attendance Wednesday.

David Goldblum, assistant professor of geography, teaches two geography classes Wednesday, one at 10 a.m. and one at 1 p.m. He said Wednesday’s attendance was a little bit lower than a normal day.

“It’s probably a quarter less than normal,” Goldblum said. “My 10 a.m. class was a little worse than my 1 p.m. class. My 10 a.m. class was sleepier than normal.”

Goldblum said the lack of attendance wasn’t that shocking.

“I didn’t walk in and say ‘Oh my God. There’s no one here,’ but it was on the lower end of the normal realm,” Goldblum said.

Elizabeth Torres, a senior criminology and psychology major, said she saw a major decrease in attendance in both of her classes Wednesday.

“I noticed about half the people in my class were gone,” Torres said about her psychology class at noon. “My 1 p.m. class was the same.”

English professor Jeffrey Johnson said his two Shakespeare classes weren’t any different than a normal day.

“My attendance was a little bit down but I wouldn’t say demonstratively so,” Johnson said. “It was the same as any other nice day in the fall.”

Sandra Carrillo, a senior communicative disorders major, said she also noticed average attendance in her class Wednesday.

“I have a 1 p.m. class and attendance was good,” Carillo said. “Everyone was there.”