Hundreds of students gathered in the Residential Quad to celebrate Obama's victory after his acceptance speech at midnight.

The crowds banged pots and plans, lit fire crackers, carried around American flags and even a life-size cardboard cutout of the President Elect.

Things are getting rowdier as the night progresses, but security seems to be lax (only one security guard was present for this whole ordeal). Two students were written up for streaking, while several other streakers went unnoticed by security later on. Two individuals also climbed the tree in front of Jewett.
at 1:33 AM Tags: BIG NEWS, Outside the Bubble, Vass Vass

how can you get in trouble for being naked?
i thought i went to vassar.

11/5/08, 1:48 AM 11/5/08, 2:02 AM you're welcome!

11/5/08, 2:03 AM 11/5/08, 2:05 AM this was honestly my favorite night at vassar, ever.

11/5/08, 2:08 AM Mina said...

damn, last election was so depressing, and that's the one i was at vassar for. wish i had been there for this one.

11/5/08, 7:43 AM How incredibly juvenile. While hundreds of students tried to sleep it seemed the crowd had one purpose, to make noise. One student happen to bring a snare drum and felt the need to prance around campus banging it. I love Obama as much as the next guy, but I also value the health and integrity of other students. I am disappointed in you Vassar students, this was an extremely immature showing. You should accept victory with grace and humility, that's how Obama did it. You should not begin to show a mob mentality. Despicable,

11/5/08, 8:45 AM like this happens all the time... chill out

11/5/08, 9:07 AM As a Vassar alum, I have to say that I am saddened and disheartened to read of students written up for streaking. What has Vassar come to? In my day, we practically got written up for not streaking.

11/5/08, 9:09 AM next time, call the poughkeepsie cops. for noise disturbances. the school will pay attention when the fucking cops have to come out here for some dumb asses making so much noise.

11/5/08, 10:01 AM (845) 451-4000

11/5/08, 10:03 AM I am truly ashamed to be a vassar student and associated with such immature behavior. How is streaking patriotic? If these are the leaders of tomorrow, I fear for this great nation.

11/5/08, 10:04 AM Oh lighten up you pretentious f*cks.

11/5/08, 10:05 AM Oh come on. People were celebrating. It was a historic night. Don't ruin the fun.

11/5/08, 10:08 AM cops. noise disturbance. people do live around the vassar campus.

no one is ruining anything.

ok thanks guys!

11/5/08, 10:11 AM I was hearing cars honking in Poughkeepsie/Arlington, so it wasn't just us

11/5/08, 10:20 AM yeah, seriously, most of america was celebrating the fact that we now have the chance for CHANGE in america. excuse us, after 8 hard as fuck years, for being a little bit excited. for wanting to show our support, and let everyone know that the YOUNG PEOPLE CARE.

11/5/08, 10:34 AM let other people know when they are not trying to sleep. That as the most disrespectful thing i have seen at vassar, and a complete disregard for everyone that is not you. It was a self centered celebration. You prove to the world nothing except that young people only care about partying and lack common decency. I am saddened to be your peer.

11/5/08, 10:37 AM "I was hearing cars honking in Poughkeepsie/Arlington, so it wasn't just us" that doesnt escuse you. Many of the cars were also Vassar student cars.

11/5/08, 10:38 AM 11/5/08, 10:46 AM here's my issue: why were you all bowing down to a cardboard cutout?

11/5/08, 10:52 AM oh my gaaaad vassar kids need to take the giant sticks out of their asses. seriously, let them do their thing! everyone has to deal with things they're not happy with. so you got 2 hours less sleep, you're not going to die because of it. just chill out and be more like the hippies everyone thinks we are and less like the pretentious fucks you're sounding like.

11/5/08, 10:56 AM I'm Catholic--that's sort of our thing.

11/5/08, 10:58 AM --in response to 10:52 Aw, somebody call a waaaaaambulance!

11/5/08, 11:01 AM Vassar students are obviously self centered. For once it would be nice to see an ounce of empathy.

11/5/08, 11:04 AM it wasn't just us...

11/5/08, 11:09 AM 11:09- Enron wasn't the only company doing insider trading, it doesn't matter. If some one else did it too doesn't make it right, not even a little bit.

11/5/08, 11:16 AM Come on... last night was one of the most important in American history, EVER, and we have people complaining that their peers were celebrating? 11/5/08, 12:07 PM Guys, don't worry about it. I think we have one or two grumplykinders posting repeatedly because they're a little cranky.

11/5/08, 12:36 PM As someone in the mob, it was awesome. The energy was so intense and everyone was so excited. Seeing the crap we've been dealt for the past 8 years, it's time to celebrate. And have you seen riot videos from other schools? I think Vassar students handled it all very well. Nothing was destroyed (to my knowledge) and the drunk freshmen in the tree climbed down safely. If you didn't get enough sleep, sorry, take a nap! They're wonderful!

11/5/08, 12:57 PM the cops did come. apparently the were outside the gate but couldn't do anything.

i can't believe that people would be so negative about what was an amazing, exciting, once in a lifetime experience.

11/5/08, 1:07 PM Our party was nothing... u shud have seen other schools and towns.
I hope you sleep better tonight. You can tell your kids one day, that you were so pissed off cuz folks celebrated a historical day.

11/5/08, 2:13 PM i think its great to celebrate. it is a wonderful, amazing, and exciting step forward for the country. I loved watching the polls come in and cheered along with everyone else when Obama was announced president, and I was moved by both speeches.

However, Obama's and the Democrat's victory doesn't mandate that college students build a mob, get drunk off their asses, and blast music while the rest of us are trying to sleep. It's like Barack said in his speech, its not over, we can't just dust our hands off and relax, this is just the beginning.

So, yeah, I like celebrating and having a drink as much as the next person, but I admit I was a little put off by the spectacle of last night. The world would spin more smoothly if everyone showed their friends and neighbors a little more respect.

11/5/08, 2:30 PM I loved the way Obama stayed composed. He had just made history but I could feel that he's just getting started, that he wants to do more than just (ok, it wasn't easy) get elected.

2:30 is right, let's channel the excitement and energy of last night for something constructive. Yes we can get drunk and party, that has never been in doubt. Yes we can change the way this country is run? Maybe. Let's try!

And bowing to a cardboard cutout? Creepy! Personality cults scare me.

11/5/08, 2:41 PM nobody was "bowing" to anything... someone had a cardboard cutout of obama and it was just part of the festivities, not in a creepy or out of line way.

i honestly can not believe that the people here are SO contentious that they can take what is arguably one of the most memorable nights any of us will have here and turn it into an excuse to bitch and complain.

people were celebrating. it wasn't so loud that nobody could sleep - i have friends on the quad side of jewett who told me they couldn't even hear it and i went to bed on the quad side of lathrop before it ended and i had no trouble at all with the noise, it was peripheral and unintrusive.

it makes me utterly sick that literally every single thing that is posted on this blog causes some people to start some absurd, disrespectful argument because this campus is over run with negativity, self importance, and misery. we have no school spirit or school unity in the least - last night was an exception, and it was a really beautiful thing. for once i felt like i was really a part of a community, and not just a group of people who want nothing to do with one another.

so, in short, you can all take your miserable comments and screw yourselves because i for one am sick and tired of the bitchiness and disrespect that is rampant on this campus.

11/5/08, 5:21 PM amen to 5:21. everyone I told about our celebration that is not part of this community was touched and amused, including my 57 year old mother. people around the world were celebrating; vassar isn't some den of self-absorption. we were celebrating how proud we were of our country.

11/5/08, 5:28 PM Respire said...

5:21, you make me proud

11/5/08, 5:57 PM 5:21, calm the fuck down. Some of the comments here were quite respectful. You act like they raped and killed someone because they asked people to be a little fucking quieter.

11/5/08, 6:30 PM Aww 6:30

11/5/08, 6:48 PM I am abroad this semester and therefore couldn't take part in the festivities but of course I would have been in that crowd rejoicing!

Seeing these reactions make me proud to call myself a Vassarion. If only for a fleeting moment, it reminded me that we are a community, and why I do miss this school.

And so these negative comments are so saddening, as Obama himself says we need to sacrifice, we need to give up to make this country just a little better. Why can't our appreciation for this man and his vision for America be spread about the Vassar campus? Why can't we think less about ourselves, and more about the whole? Why must we be so contentious about everything? Why can't we be that much more loving?

We all need to gain a little perspective and for once just try to be positive, if the only things you have to worry about are the soda choices, lack of food options, or parties, or the weather, or gender neutral housing--then for goodness' sake realize how near perfect our lives are. Rather than finding everything problematic why can't we just be HAPPY! And try to work to improve the world outside of Vassar.

(but not colonize it--I know you're out there Muppiddi)

11/5/08, 7:21 PM 6:30 is such a cute troll!

11/5/08, 7:45 PM yeah, i called my mom and she was so jealous not to be able to be a part of all of what went on. i think it was great and 6:30, my original post was maybe a little extreme but you can't deny that many of the comments on this post, and most of the comments on past posts (see: kick coke) are very out of line.. i think i am totally justified in everything i said in regards to this issues and issues past. - 5:21

11/5/08, 8:34 PM if young children of the future ask me where i was on one of the most historic election nights EVER, i certainly won't be telling them "well, i was trying to get some SLEEP..."

11/5/08, 8:36 PM omg. DID 11:16 AM really, REALLY just compare our party to ENRON!?!?!? let's see: one was arguably harmless fun, and one was illegal. what a horrible analogy, be fucking serious.

11/5/08, 8:42 PM Relax. There is nothing wrong with a little celebration. The parties on the streets of New York City were far louder and more mobby than ours (which I proudly partook in.) PLUS if you lived in Europe, the party for something as simple as a soccer game would be far louder and more intense. If you're tired take a nap... you missed out.

11/5/08, 11:40 PM I don't understand why anyone would sleep through a once-in-a-lifetime historical event like last night. It was amazing to be out on the quad and be surrounded by the pride, hope and unity of hundreds of other people. I think it is wonderful to see that many people our age be so engaged, invested, enthusiastic and involved in the political process. This is an incredible moment in our country's history, and it warrants a celebration!

11/6/08, 12:13 AM Seriously, all of the people who re whining about the election night revelry need to shut the fuck up and be positive. I was one of the two guys who climbed that tree, and I didn't do it out of some self centered hedonism. I did it because for eight years, for eight fucking years, I have waited for the moment that happened Tuesday night. Some of us have waited their entire lives for a moment like this. It is definitely a call for celebration. Would you tell jubilant south African blacks to shut up and go to sleep, because they were partying all night because apartheid had ended? I think not. Take the stick out of your ass and loosen up a bit. Realize that Tuesday night was a call of celebration and unity and you should have said "fuck sleep" and came out and joined the fun. Hell, I lost my voice AND got sick!

11/6/08, 2:10 PM No great American feat took place. We did not over throw an oppressive governmental regime to finally for the first time in history gain freedom. We elected a president. The same way we do every 4-8 years. Why then was this time a cause for a ridiculously obnoxious display of debauchery? Was it because the new president elect is biracial? I thought we viewed the world and the candidates as color blind. The campus would not react the way it had if say a white person won the election. The reaction only furthers ideas of racism. The reaction highlighted the race of our new president, not the possibility of bettering our country. The celebration was disproportionately large and juvenile. The race of our president does not have nearly the effect on Vassar students as it has on other areas of our country which have actually experienced racism. Vassar's celebration seems to be fueled by an innate desire to get drunk and party that many Vassar student's have. The race of a president is no excuse for that. it shouldn't even make a difference. The party did the opposite of what we are striving for as an equal society by highlighting that we elected a black man, not that we elected a qualified person.

11/6/08, 2:43 PM 2:43, did you miss the part where this happened all over the world?

11/6/08, 2:54 PM I think many of us were celebrating the fact that the country is going in a completely new direction, not just the fact Obama is black. Many of us were also celebrating because for maybe the first time in our lives were were so proud to be Americans.

This argument should really end here. Just look at the pictures above of the celebrations from around the country. It's not just Vassar kids getting drunk and being noisy.

And as some of the above commenters have said, in a few decades when your children and grandchildren ask where you were on this historic night, you will have to tell them you were trying to fall asleep.

11/6/08, 2:58 PM 2:43, what the FUCK? did you actually just say racism doesn't happen on this campus!? don't bother speaking next time, seriously.

11/6/08, 5:41 PM 243, i think you are overthinking it.

But some of the other posts are kind of disturbing too.

Did you stop and think not everyone on campus even supported Obama? Let's put it this way, if you didn't, if you thought he was a very bad candidate, how would you react to people acting like the Berlin Wall just fell, outside your window?

Do you think you might be a little less enthusiastic?

11/6/08, 5:47 PM I can't believe that people think Obama was elected just because he was black. Excuse me? If anything in this election proved is that our country is bringing down the boundaries between race and what it means to be a person (the boundaries in sexuality WILL come down, too, California just sucks at it). He was elected because he's a visionary and understands what the country needs right now. He has unique ideas and knows how to help our country get beyond what the past 8 years have done. Close your eyes and listen to Obama speak and you will be just as inspired.

11/6/08, 7:16 PM hey noise-makers/noise-complainers want to do something constructive?

i promise if it doesn't pass this time, the party will be quieter (maybe)!

11/6/08, 9:07 PM sorry, i should have added only california signatures count, go tell your west coast friends to sign!

also, that 2:43 comment about race sounded bitter, irrelevant, and pretty racist since the assumption made seems to be that we were purely celebrating his race.
if mccain had won, would people be celebrating the continuation of a white presidency? i certainly hope not.

11/6/08, 9:12 PM also, don't think for a damn minute that the vassar alums of the past wouldn't have celebrated in a similar [if not BIGGER AND LOUDER, i heard vassar's past students were less pretentious and knew how to party] fashion if kerry or gore had bit this past 8 year nightmare in the bud.

if gore had one, i know i personally would have sent up a firecracker and drank a beer for every recounted vote

11/6/08, 9:15 PM If Gore had one what? Do you mean won?

Do you realize that you sound really destructive and stupid? Firecrackers and beers, seriously. Really you sound terrible.

11/6/08, 11:53 PM I really feel bad for people who don't know how to have fun, and I think they should all go to a different college. Vassar is no longer a finishing school for young ladies. Wake up and smell the 21st century. My opinion, just sayin'.

11/7/08, 10:04 AM Fredrick Douglas said...

You are right, Vassar is certainly no longer a finishing school. Instead it has thrown its morals out the door. Vassar has become polluted with pretension and people who are increasingly intolerant. We may indeed be tolerant to the non-conformities of society, however this school has developed a serious ideological divide that needs to be addressed. Thomas Sowell a renowned economist and former professor at Cornell and Stanford talks about how we are in an age of liberal elitism that has no conscious of other view points being potentially valid. To paraphrase him "They say we live in a complex world, but in this complex world they don't see that there could possibly be multiple valid sides of the same issue." Vassar has this problem to an unhealthy degree. People only think and feel that everyone need to be overcome with joy over Obama's win. They don't realize that many people do not see it as historic in the same sense. To many people racial boundries have no existed for some time, and it was inevitable that a non-white/ non-male/ non-christian or all of the above was elected. The excessive celebration clearly shows how the student who were involved and continue to not see any harm in it are unable to conceive possible ideological differences that are equally if not more valid than their own. This is an epic fault that this, amongst other colleges are falling into. When schools are overrun with intellectually left faculty and the young minds of america are molded one way with only one view point throughout highschool and college we end up hurting the end goal of all things government, which is to compromise effectively for all. To me the celebration revealed a much deeper problem with vassar, that is intolerance. A new idea of intolerance that many of you cannot understand or see as wrong. I asked one student about this idea, and she said that you choose your political ideology so it is okay to be intolerant to some. We choose our religions, yet this is not okay to judge one by. Political ideology is carried over from parents at a higher rate than religion is today, yet this intolerance is acceptable. I am fearful for a future run by people who cannot even perceive their own elitism. Vassar, as do many other institutions, needs to change this practice. We need to reignite the ideas of political discourse.

I know in writing this post there will inevitably be lots of responses of people who claim to be tolerant of all political beliefs, and think it is wrong to compare it to religion (perhaps that is harsh) but it is these exact people that do not even realize what they are doing. They are conviced because they are not racists, or sexist, or judge people's sexual or religious preferences, that they are indeed tolerant. It is however this mindset that the only answers that are seen to a problem are liberal, and obvious that is destructive. This is far too prevalent at Vassar.

11/7/08, 12:14 PM What on earth are you trying to say? Where are you coming from? Why don't people think of it as historic? Because they're color-blind? What ?? Please explain, thanks.

11/8/08, 1:29 PM Well, it's a damn good thing right wingers don't want to be teachers. Or professors. Otherwise there would be more of them.

11/8/08, 1:30 PM also one more thing, you sound a LOT like the repubs during the campaign. so if you get an education, you're elite????? we're partaking in elitism by going to vassar? knowledge, learning, wisdom, intelligence = ELITISM!!!!!!

11/8/08, 1:32 PM Has it occurred to anyone that we weren't celebrating because of Obama's race, but because we believe he will be a great leader of our country? While I think the historical aspect is interesting, I support Obama because I believe his ideals and integrity will bring great change to the USA. If McCain was black, I wouldn't have voted for him, and I wouldn't be celebrating. Race has nothing to do with my political views.
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