Students react to Gore concession

Students with their noses buried in history textbooks last night might have missed an important page of history in the making, as Vice President Al Gore conceded the presidential race to Texas Governor George W. Bush. And although both Bush and Gore called for bipartisan cooperation during their speeches, campus political leaders stuck by their candidates. "I thought that [Gore] was very gracious in his concession," said College senior and Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Michael Bassik, the statewide coordinator of Pennsylvania's Colleges for Gore. "Everyone is upset. We worked so hard to carry Pennsylvania." But Bassik was confident that his party's loss would be short-lived. "We'll have another one-term Bush president," he said. College junior Emily Stetler disagreed. "[Gore] destroyed his credibility," said Stetler, who is the executive director of the College Republicans. "So many Democrats were disgusted with how he played his cards that he has no chance for 2004." Stetler also maintained that her party has a good chance of winning the 2004 election as well. "The Democratic party doesn't have too many rising stars," she said. Other Bush supporters praised both candidates' speeches. "It was what I expected [Bush] to say," said Penn for Bush Chair and Engineering and College senior John Lee. "He repeated a lot of things he said in the campaign to reaffirm that he's still sticking by bipartisanship -- it wasn't just lip service for the election year." "His fighting spirit is still in him," Lee said of Gore. "He had nice words for Bush because he also respects Bush as a man, as Bush does him. I respect that he had the courage to go out and say what he did with such gusto." But Bassik expressed anger at what he thought was an unfair victory. "Gore put up a tremendous fight, but it is unfortunate that the American legal system is what prevented all votes from being counted," Bassik said. "It's a shame that our next president won neither the popular vote nor the electoral vote legitimately." Political Science Professor Marie Gottschalk agreed. "Bush has been appointed to the White House," she said. "I don't know if you can say that he was elected." Some students were left feeling disenfranchised by the entire process. "I'm disappointed in such an arcane [voting] system in a country that has produced Silicon Valley," second-year MBA student Sajjad Jaffer said. "It'll bring an overhaul of voter technology -- I predict 10 startups developing voting technology." Some at the University are already brainstorming ways to improve future elections. The Fels Center of Government has proposed creating a national commission on voter reform that would develop better practices for voter administration and model statutes for all fifty states, according to Fels Director Lawrence Sherman. "We're negotiating with Congress as we speak," he said. "Every election in the whole country will be open to litigation because of the variability in how the votes are cast," Sherman said, citing a reason for Fels' involvement in election politics. But in the end, students from both parties echoed relief that the drama had come to a close. "I'm tired of hearing nothing but election coverage on CNN -- there has to be other important stuff going on," Lee said.