By Evan Walsh, Chief Copy Editor
Ohio Wesleyan students and faculty made the trip to the nation’s capital to watch the swearing in of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States.
The school provided transportation and supervision to and from the event for the 17 students who went.
Some chose to attend to observe and take part in the transition from one administration to the next, while others spent the whole weekend there as demonstrators.
Each student had different motivations for going, but the historical significance of the event remained critical to the experience.
Senior Sam Schurer did not originally plan on going to the inauguration and had planned instead to participate in the marches.
“I had a lot of discontent that I wanted to voice and I thought that this was the best platform for that,” Schurer said.
Schurer, a politics and goverment major at OWU, eventually changed his mind about the inauguration and made arrangements to attend that, as well.
Dwayne Todd, vice president for student engagement and success, along with Public Safety Officer Chris Mickens organized the trip.
Todd explained why he feels like Ohio Wesleyan has a responsibility to give students this opportunity.
“The idea is that we are fulfilling our institution’s mission of engaging in the world outside our university… we’re not doing our job if we don’t engage with these ideas and stand outside of the process,” Todd said.
A big reason why Todd thought the trip was a success was because the group going was so diverse and represented the political interests and demographic makeup of OWU.
He described it as a “good cross section of our student body”
Whether or not the university will make this a tradition remains to be determined.
According to Todd, the last time OWU sponsored an inaugural trip was in 2009 for the first of Barack Obama’s two terms.
The university made the decision not to go back in 2013 when Obama was re-elected.
“The idea is that we are fulfilling our institution’s mission of engaging in the world outside our university…we’re not doing our job if we don’t engage with these ideas and stand outside of the process.” Dwayne Todd, vice president for student engagement and success.
Todd said he has entertained the idea of bringing students to each inauguration, but thinks it is more likely that the trip will only be offered whenever someone new takes office.