On campus, inauguration is must-see TV

Staffers take break from daily routines to watch ‘history in the making’

By Rachel Cromidas

CHICAGO — “I’ve got to go—I’ll call you later,” Stella Manns said, hanging up the phone at the front desk of Snell-Hitchcock Hall.

“That was another desk clerk, from Maclean. We didn’t want to talk too much, we don’t want to even take our eyes off it for a minute.”

Like students, faculty, and staff all over campus, Manns and dozens of other housing and dining staff members took a few moments Tuesday morning from their jobs checking ID cards, preparing food, and keeping house. Whatever attention could be spared went to dormitory televisions and desk computers showing the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

“I’m speechless,” Manns said, splitting her attention between the Channel 9 news and the students running through the dormitory front door. “I knew one day this would happen, but I never thought I would live to see it.”

Manns, a resident of the Chatham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, has been working for the University for 31 years. She started out as a cashier in Hutchinson Commons, and later at International House, before joining the housing staff.

“They just went to church,” she said, tracking the Obamas on television. “There goes Al Gore, and his wife, and [George] Herbert Walker Bush. Did you know he walked with a cane? Barbara looks good.”

“I’m going to watch the inauguration the whole time,” she added. “And it won’t interfere with my work. It’s history in the making.”


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