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About 2 million people came to the National Mall to see the president deliver his inaugural address.

ON TUESDAY, JAN. 20, 2009, about 2 million men, women and children gathered on the National Mall to be a part of history. Interspersed throughout the crowd – which braved long lines, freezing temperatures and 3 a.m. wake-up calls to see Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) become the 44th president of the United States – were clusters of Georgetown students who had made the trek from the Hilltop.

“The sun was just rising over the Mall and illuminating the Capitol Building. . There were hordes of Obama volunteers shouting `Welcome’ and smiling, hopeful Americans were streaming onto the scene from every direction,” Hoya Staff Writer Sarah Gardiner recalled in a feature published in The Guide on Jan. 23. “It was unreal,” she added.

But for many Georgetown students, the excitement of the 2008 presidential race was an indelibly real experience.

As the nation watched Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) battle for the Democratic Party’s nomination and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) select Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R) as his running mate, many Georgetown students were in the thick of the action themselves, either working for the campaigns or with politically affiliated campus groups.

The College Democrats and Republicans hosted events like the bipartisan Young Voters Forum, which featured journalists Chris Cillizza (COL ’98) of The Washington Post, James Kotecki (SFS ’97) of Politico and Jerry Zremski of The Buffalo News leading a discussion of the issues by students. The Philodemic Society hosted a debate allowing students in the two camps to defend the candidate of their choice. Groups also helped get the word out by registering as many new voters as possible.

As on many U.S. college campuses, support for Obama was strong on the Hilltop. In an unscientific poll of 405 students administered by The Hoya just prior to the election, 76 percent of respondents reported that they planned on voting or had already voted for Obama. About 19 percent said they were voting for McCain, while the remainder planned on voting for other candidates or not voting at all. Nationwide, the 2008 election was marked by a huge increase in voter registration and turnout by young voters.

On a national level, the College Democrats campaigned for Obama in Ohio and Virginia. Chris Dodge (SFS ’10), then communications director for the College Democrats, estimated that the Democrats had knocked on over 30,000 doors by the end of the campaign season.

Their hard work paid off on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and election night was a memorable culmination to their efforts. The College Democrats’ election watch in Sellinger Lounge attracted hundreds of students. After the news came in that Obama had clinched the election, the real party began. The celebration took to the streets, as many students headed to the White House in a scene reminiscent of the night in 2007 when the Georgetown men’s basketball team sealed a berth in the Final Four.

But on election night, more than just Georgetown students were celebrating. In the streets of D.C., cars honked their horns to the tune of the ubiquitous chant “Yes, we can,” and a sign was hung on the gates of the White House reading, “Welcome Malia and Sasha” – referring to the president-elect’s two daughters.

“I would guess about 3,000 people were in front of the White House, singing patriotic songs, yelling various chants for Obama or taunting Bush,” Dodge recalled.

“The scene in front of the White House was spectacular. . Seeing elderly black women out in front of the White House at midnight, tearing up and singing, was very moving and really hit home the historic nature of Obama’s victory,” Dodge said.

Georgetown students studying abroad felt the excitement as well, with locals and Americans tuning in to watch the results no matter how late the hour.

“We were running around in our Obama shirts screaming, and [people] were waving and honking at us,” said Ellie Gunderson (COL ’10), who was studying in Cape Town, South Africa, at the time, in a Nov. 7 article in The Hoya.

Isabella Bennett (COL ’10) recalled similar excitement in Beijing, China, where she was studying. She said that when Obama was announced as the winner, everyone in the café she was visiting was given free beer.

Classes had barely resumed after Christmas break when Georgetown began preparing for the onslaught of inauguration visitors. With campus security increased and strict guest policies in place, the university was ready for the increase in human traffic.

The city itself was less prepared. Now, thanks to a Facebook group, the “Purple Tunnel of Doom” – referring to a tunnel under the National Mall used on Inauguration Day to accommodate difficulties with crowd control – lives on in infamy for the thousands of ticketholders who were not granted access to the Mall.

Kristin Halsing (COL ’12) was one such unlucky ticketholder. She remembers the confusion and chaos of waiting in line at the 3rd Street tunnel without any notification from police or other authorities.

“Once out of the tunnel . there was no end in sight, just another even larger mass of people. We all had no idea where to go. . Finally, word had been passed back that the gate was closed,” she said. “I listened to Obama’s speech wandering around the grounds waiting for the event to be over, on my cell phone with my dad placing his up to the television at home.”

Overall, however, the inauguration was a positive and memorable experience for those who attended.

“A lot of what has happened this past weekend seems like a bit of a cliché, but things only become that way because they are true,” Gardiner wrote. “I was proud to be an American.”

Gardiner was likely not the only Georgetown student in attendance with the feeling. The 2008 election (and its memorable prologue and epilogue) inspired students to feel hopeful and involved in making history. For Georgetown, the experience was unforgettable – all the more so because the Hilltop had a front-row seat.”