Tuesday, October 21, 2008

late complaints

Now this may be a bit late, but I would like to discuss my thoughts on the Obama/Biden rally. Two words come to my mind when I reflect on this event: Logistical…………..nightmare. I, and I’m sure many of you, were very surprised to wake up and find that your campus looked more like D.C. than Fredericksburg, with street vendors and throngs of people everywhere, as well as campaign merchandise everywhere the eye can see. But that wasn’t part of the nightmare, that was expected. I’m sure many of us attempted to attend the rally, but were hindered by the line starting at Virginia Hall. Mind you, this line was not the short distance from Virginia to Ball Circle, but it proceeded down Sunken (I believe), up William, and from College avenue into the Campus. My friends and I cut into the line on campus, to jeers and confrontation from those around us, and after explaining that we were students and had the right to get into our own grounds, left voluntarily to wait with our other friends. Did the moderators of this event actually think a line of this magnitude, which never seemed to shrink, would fit into Ball Circle? I hope not. Now I never got in to the rally, as well as many of you I’m sure. You would think the moderators could have started telling people not to get in line before waiting two or three hours for nothing. And let’s not forget the trash issue. Could UMW really not think to place extra trash cans for the 30,000 people that showed up? I had a picture of a trash can completely engulfed by garbage, with a 3 foot wide circle of garbage piled around it. Two extra trash cans in this area would have solved the problem. The event, in its aftermath, left Ball Circle much like the operations of D-day left the beaches of Normandy. Enough said. My final complaint is that, in hosting an event that created so much hassle for its students, and ravaged the campus, UMW could have at least seen to it that its students GOT IN to the event.

8 comments:

Corey Laub said...

i agree that it was a nightmare with all the people. I was a voulenteer for the event so let me try and clarify a couple things as best as i can. The campaign chose the school, not the other way around. At the meetings before the event, the campaign was expecting mostly students and around 10-15k people. the final count of people in line, which did circle the whole block down sunken and almost back to where it started. it was awful. i had to keep telling people in line that they will most likely get in even though we knew it would never happen. the final count ended up being around 40k. ball circle was definatly not the prime choice for the first public event with Obama and Biden appearing at the same rally.

Kayla said...

I completely agree. My friends and I got right up to the metal-detector gates and the police said we might as well all leave because nobody else was getting in.

Keep in mind that we cut into the line without much protest from the people around us and the line was still wrapping around Williams Street and up Sunken. And then I heard that it started at least an hour late.

Anyway, I was disappointed that I didn't get in..

ervolsen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ervolsen said...

Well, I hear when Bill Clinton came down here a few years ago they tried to stuff everyone into the 'Great Hall'.

Anyways -- I think UMW did a good job. They had extremely short notice (what was it - like 3 days??). One thing they should have had was some FOOD and drinks inside ball circle. Anything would have been good.

It was definately not worth the wait at all.

Corey Laub said...

they didnt have any notice for clinton, people found out the night before. but for Obama it was on the Obama's website about 2 weeks before

patrick morrison said...

i'd like to see what kind of reception a republican candidate would receive here. we can only speculate

ervolsen said...

Hey by the way.. This is the first non technology post Ive seen - so we can pretty much blog about anything we want?

patrick morrison said...

i think its just that we're blogging is the assignment. a few non technology posts are refreshing