Collegiate Times

"It was just such a relief that I don't think I woke up until four in the afternoon," Geroe said.

Although he didn't let his school life suffer and said he couldn't ask any student volunteers to skip classes, he found other ways to sacrifice.

"Don't skip your exams," Geroe said, explaining what he told other students who campaigned for Obama. "Embrace the fact that you've got an education. Instead of sacrificing your school time, try to sacrifice the other stuff."

"The other stuff" was social time and relaxation, Geroe said.

He only had positive remarks about the College Republicans and McCain supporters in general, but he said they implemented more of an old-fashioned campaigning style.

"I think they kind of did the same stuff that we did, just on a smaller level with the smaller staff that they had," Geroe said. "College Republicans worked as hard as they could. They did their best with what they had."

But Geroe said Republicans ran the same campaign they've been running for the past 20 years, which wasn't as effective this year. The Democratic candidate for president had more money than the Republican for the first time in that 20 years, and there was a higher "general excitement level" this year for Obama, Geroe said.

Chris Cox, Tech's chapter coordinator for the Students for Barack Obama, contributed to that excitement level. To him, campaigning for Obama was more important than going to class.

"I think that this election and the changes that are going to be made will define our generation," Cox said. "I never felt like I had done enough."

Cox admitted he skipped a lot of class throughout the campaign.

"The last two days before the election, I just didn't go," Cox said. He made calls to voters, canvassed, and organized many on-campus events himself or alongside Geroe.

His organization and the few others that registered students to vote managed to sign up 6,000 students on campus. They put in hundreds of hours for campaigning that could have been spent going to class, doing homework or hanging out with friends, all three of these political leaders would have had it no other way.

"I think you can ask anybody who was involved in the campaign -- every bit of it was worth it," Geroe said.

Continue Reading:  « Previous12