“I don’t care about the president, I don’t like the president, I don’t want to see him.”
That’s what second-year in philosophy Emily Wenerstrom said about President Barack Obama’s Tuesday visit to Ohio State’s campus.
Some students like Wenerstrom had their classes canceled due to the event, and weren’t happy about it.
“I come here and pay money to go to class, so I am angry that my class was canceled for an event that I don’t pay money for,” she said.
Wenerstrom said it was her favorite class that got canceled.
Obama arrived on the Oval Tuesday at about 5:10 p.m. and spoke to a crowd of 15,000 for roughly 20 minutes about voter registration, the economy and the importance of education.
Wenerstrom said professors probably canceled class because they assumed many students would skip anyway.
“You can’t teach a class with like five people,” she said.
Some students argued that the location of the campaign rally could have been farther away from students’ classrooms.
“I think the Oval is not a very good location for this,” said Kate Lucas, a third-year in linguistics. “We have the Horseshoe, why can’t they do it there? Or the Schottenstein Center would be a lot more convenient.”
However, some other students said they simply weren’t interested in listening to the Commander-in-chief.
“I really just didn’t care,” said Mike Tischler, a fourth-year in strategic communication and psychology. Tischler said that he has never gone to see Obama during any of his five visits to campus in the past two years.
Although some professors canceled classes for the event, other students did not have the free time to go. They had a difficult decision to make: go to class or see the president.
But Kelli Stevens, a second-year in health sciences and Spanish, would have stayed away from the Oval, even if she didn’t have class.
“I’m honestly not a huge fan of either one of the candidates,” Stevens said.
With the presidential visit coinciding with the last day for voter registration, some students said the visit highlights the significance of Ohio in the upcoming election.
“We’re a pretty gigantic campus, major swing state that switches candidates every election,” said Mitch Cahill, a first-year in international studies.
However, Cahill said he didn’t go see the president because he doesn’t relate to him.
“I see the president more as a figurehead and it’s hard for me to humanize him,” Cahill said. “So that’s why I chose to not skip class to go see him.”
Obama held his re-election campaign kickoff event at the Schottenstein Center on May 5.
Obama last visited Central Ohio less than a month ago, for a campaign stop at Schiller Park in German Village Sept. 17. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was last in Columbus Sept. 26, when he visited Westerville South High School.
Romney held a rally Tuesday in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, just outside of Akron, and is scheduled to visit Lancaster, Ohio, about 40 minutes from Columbus, on Friday.
Centre College in Danville, Ky., will be hosting a vice presidential debate at 8 p.m. Thursday between Vice President Joe Biden and Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan.
Romney has not yet visited OSU, but his son Craig Romney was on campus Saturday.
Tuesday’s visit to the Oval was Obama’s fifth to OSU in two years.
Results of a Tuesday seven-day rolling Gallup poll of registered voters have Obama in the lead with 49 percent, and Romney trailing at 46 percent with less than a month until the Nov. 6 presidential election.
