After yesterday morning’s announcement that Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States, Emporia State’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion opened up as a safe space for all students. This reflected the mixed feelings of students all over campus.
“I’m a little bummed out over it,” said Tryston Lankford, junior music education major. “I feel like he (Trump) can do the best that he can with the office, we just need to keep going forward as a country.”
Other students reported feeling shock over the announcement.
“(I have) a lot of mixed feelings,” said Mayra Zepeda, freshman elementary education major. “Of course, like everyone else I’m pretty sure no one wanted either candidate to win, but (are) more surprised that Trump actually won…I was pretty upset about the fact that it happened, and pretty surprised as well.”
Students who voted for Hillary Clinton were disappointed to see their candidate lose.
“I voted for Hillary Clinton, just to stick true to the Democratic Party, really,” Lankford said. “I really didn’t like both of them, I really just wanted to stay true to my party. Even if it wouldn’t have been her, I would have voted to stay true to my party or to vote against Donald Trump.”
Those students who voted for Clinton hoped she would win. Other students supported Hillary more strongly.
“(I was hoping) Hillary would win,” Zepeda said. “Even though she has done a lot of wrong, she has more political experience than Trump. He has none at all.”
However, those who voted for Trump were happy with the results.
“I was actually surprised by what happened, I thought she (Clinton) would come out and win, but I voted for Donald so I was actually pleased with the results,” said Danny Meyers, freshman accounting major. “I would like to see some economic reform here. I’m an accounting major so it’s kind of important here and I think we’re in a really big hole. He built a really big company so it’d be nice to see what someone with an economic centered mind could do.”
Yi Cai, a graduate business major agreed that Trump was the better choice.
“I think he is better than Clinton,” Cai said. “I didn’t vote, but I like Trump more because Clinton lies and I don’t like that.”
Alicia Zuern, sophomore elementary education major, voted third party.
“I don’t know how to feel about the results, honestly,” Zuern said. “I think it (Trump) was a decent choice…I did vote. I ended up going third party because I couldn’t see myself voting for Trump because I don’t agree with how he goes about things and I definitely don’t like Clinton.”
Other students weren’t concerned with the election outcomes.
“I don’t really keep up with it,” said Dakota Nightingale, junior elementary education major. “I looked at it on my phone but I didn’t vote so I don’t really have a say in what happened.”
