 "Photo: Steven Gold")
On Nov. 22, football fans will pile into Tubby Raymond Stadium in yellow shirts, providing a yellow-out effect for the game against Villanova University. That day will have a direct connection with last week's presidential election.
Elizabeth Perse, chair of the department of communication, says the election event held in Trabant University Center last Tuesday evening left students with a unique way to reuse their campaign clothing.
"We had about 1,200 to 1,500 T-shirts we made for the event and we gave them all away," Perse says. "We chose the theme of yellow so that the students could reuse the shirts at the yellow-out football game."
She says the campaign shirts were given away for free to students and all of them were gone by the end of the night. The idea of creating yellow shirts not only promoted the night's event, but gave everyone a chance to actually do something with the campaign items they used throughout the election.
Not everything used for campaigning is likely to be saved, says Dana Johnston, community affairs officer for the City of Newark. She expects many of the campaign signs outside of people's homes will be thrown away.
"Outdoor signs don't tend to fair well through the different weather conditions like rain and heat," Johnston says. "I think people will end up throwing these signs away no matter what."
Johnston says the city hasn't noticed too many campaign items being thrown away. She feels it may still be too soon after the election for people to discard them.
"I think people are more likely to end up keeping certain things," Johnston says. "I think they would keep magazines, newspapers and those types of items."
Some campaign items prove difficult to part with. Perse says the department of communication has yet to figure out what to do with the 12-by-14-foot sign hanging from Trabant.
"We thought we'd try to hang it somewhere in the building," Perse says. "If you have any ideas, let me know."
The department of communication tried specifically to avoid having a large amount of paper printed and ultimately thrown out at the event, she says. Instead of having extra copies of the night's schedule, they encouraged students to print out their own copy of the evening's schedule and bring it with them.
"We chose to have them download the schedule specifically to be green," Perse says.
Senior Taylor Nuttycombe worked at Trabant during the election event. He says there were many signs and banners, most of which will probably be saved.
"I'm not sure exactly what they'll do with the signs," Nuttycombe says. "I don't think they plan on throwing them away, though."
Trabant became more crowded as the night progressed, he says. Many of the students were sporting their yellow T-shirts, which will be among some of the saved items of the evening.
Senior Caitlin Kelleher plans on eventually throwing away the campaign sign she has, but thinks others are a bit more attached to their items.
"I heard some people are saving their campaign stuff since it was such an important election," Kelleher says. "Someone told me people are selling buttons and posters from the election on eBay."
Buttons are for sale on eBay from both parties. Some items - such as a set of 14 McCain-Palin buttons - have a buy-now price as high as $39.00.
"I wouldn't spend money to get one," Kelleher says. "It's funny the thought that people would spend that much on a button for someone who lost."
Other items for sale on eBay include a "Hope: Stand With Obama" rally sign for $9.99 and a T-shirt that reads "HOPE" with Obama's face in tints of red, white and blue.
Johnston says since this was such a big election, people may be more likely to hold onto campaign items than in previous years.
"This being such a historical election I think some people will be saving some of their campaign items," she says. "When it comes to what specific stuff they'll save, it depends what's important to them."
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