At 4:35 a.m. AP News officially reported that former President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, but by then, Auburn students had been celebrating for hours. Most started to consider the presidential election over after Trump won the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
The first rollers appeared to arrive around 12:29 a.m., as per the City of Auburn's Toomer’s Corner Webcam.
“It was quite the enthusiastic celebration that I believe was summed up best when someone yelled out ‘I can afford groceries now,’” said Andrew Jenkins, senior in finance.
After a few hours, hundreds of students gathered and began rolling Toomer’s just like they do after an Auburn Athletics win.
Dan Whatley, assistant vice president of facilities operation for facilities management provided a statement:
“Based on past experience with presidential elections, Facilities Management expected Toomer's Corner to be rolled following final results and prepared accordingly. Our contracted partner was on standby to come perform cleanup services and began this morning following our authorization to proceed,” Whatley said.
Everything appeared to be peaceful and celebratory, and this was corroborated by Jennifer Adams, executive director of public affairs for the university. She shared a statement:
"Auburn students and local citizens have rolled Toomer’s Corner after presidential elections for Republican and Democratic presidents-elect going back to at least 1988. Campus Safety & Security reported that the people present last night were peaceful, chanted 'USA' and sang the National Anthem," Adams said.
This morning the trees were still rolled, but Auburn Facilities Management started taking it down around 7:45 a.m.
As expected, people all across campus are talking about the election results, as well as Auburn's celebration style. Some are all for it, while others are more hesitant to encourage this kind of publicly celebratory behavior from the Auburn Family.
“After such a tense election and a, frankly, unexpectedly decisive outcome, it’s understandable that students want to celebrate their candidate winning. I get that. But I hope that those happy about the election can find the grace to be kind and gentle with those in the Auburn family who may be quite upset. Humility in victory is an underrated virtue,” said Peter White, associate professor in the Department of Political Science.
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Sami Grace Donnelly, senior in English literature, began writing for the Plainsman in the fall of 2021. She has served as a columnist, writer abroad, Opinion Editor, managing editor and is now Editor-in-Chief of the Plainsman.
