IT'S ANATURAL EVENT FOR US TO HAVE //////STEVE BREEZEEL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE TuesdaY1 Nov. 2, transformed room 201 in the Ganus building into election headquarters for the political science and history majors. Two overhead screens and two televisions were tuned to FOX, CNN, Channel 11 and OpinionJoumal.com while students and faculty members lounged in cushioned chairs awaiting the results of the 2004 presidential election. Steve Breezeel, assistant professor of political science, acted as host for the event. Breezeel said Harding has held a party to watch the election results several times in the past, and he also attended one as a student. "We try to revive this tradition each time we have an election," Breezeel said. "It's a natural event for us to have." Before the party the students predicted 'whom they believed would win the election and how many electoral votes the winner would receive. The winner of the contest would win $43 if President George W. Bush was re-elected, and $44 if Sen. John Kerry, democratic nominee, won. The prize money was based on the sequence number the president would hold in history. Senior Kolby Kuwitzky, president of the political science honor society and member of the college bowl team, was a stanch Democrat among many Republican-leaning students. "The people in this department are pretty open minded," he said. "I haven't gotten any opposition from the teachers, but [I got] more criticism [on election day] than usual - no intelligent criticism, though." Senior Rebecca Chaffin, Phi Alpha Theta vice president, supported President Bush in the election. "If he [didn't] get it [1 would have been] very disappointed," Chaffin said. "Bush [was] constant [during his campaign], he hasn't changed his mind about the war in Iraq and the soldiers believe in him." Students' predictions of a close election were proven correct when Kerry conceded to Bush aTound 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3. As for the trivia game to determine who was more knowledgeable about the politics of elections, the history majors conceded to the political science majors' win by a narrow margin. Junior David Walker, nephew of Dr. Kevin Klein, chairman of the history and social science department, won the" guess the president" competition when he chose Bush with 284 electoral votes. Bush received 286 votes. Kerry received 252. -ALISAMOlONEY HISTORYISOCIAL SCIENCE - 171
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