Florida Atlantic students and faculty sat in suspense watching the exit polls add up Tuesday night through Wednesday morning, eventually revealing that Republican nominee Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Trump won Florida’s 29 electoral college votes by a 49 to 48 percent margin against Clinton, who was favored in several pre-election polls to win the election. Some students were pleased as they had been predicting the results over a year ago, while others found the outcome upsetting.

“I’m a little sad and disappointed by the result,” sophomore mechanical engineering major Marcus Davani said.

Davani, who voted for Clinton, said he felt Trump won when he secured the electoral votes of Michigan and Ohio, which haven’t nominated a Republican since 1988 and 2004 respectively.

Sophomore architecture major Kyle Mast said that he supported Sen. Marco Rubio initially, but then favored Trump when Rubio dropped out.

“He is different than other candidates,” Mast said. “He spoke his mind. I also liked that he was bringing in a more conservative vice president.”

Junior computer engineering major Jenna Voutsinas was pleased with the results of the election. She supported Trump because she felt he would be able to secure America’s borders and keep citizens safe.  

“I was kind of happy because I voted for Trump. I explained it to my friends it was a choice between which poison tastes the best,” said Voutsinas.

Others on campus were not surprised by the result and have been anticipating this to happen since the Republican primaries, including junior communication major Dylan Calhoun.

He said, “I’m not surprised at all that Trump won by the amount and I called it. I’m not trying to say I told you so, but I mean I did see it coming and a lot of people just kind of shut it down like, “No, he has no chance, he has no opportunity.’”

“He laid all of this out for us in the primaries when he ran against all the other Republicans, all 16 other candidates that said the same things and he still blew them out of the water. He blew Marco Rubio out of his state of Florida,” the junior continued.

Daniella Fernandez, a freshman business and hospitality management major, said she thinks there are some drawbacks to having Trump in office.

“I do know he doesn’t necessarily set a good example with the way he speaks,” she said. “The fact that he doesn’t have a filter, that’s not the best example for young people to have.”

Several students said they thought that Trump’s presidency would affect higher education across the U.S. The president-elect is proposing a higher education policy to remove governmental funding from the student loan system and would rather have private banks lend money for college, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Travis Virgo, a junior biology major, said he feels like he will receive less financial aid because of Trump.

“America made a big mistake letting that happen,” Virgo said. “Even though he is the president, I don’t think he is fit for the job.”

One professor feels that his higher education policy will prove to be a good thing for young people later on in life. Education will have to be paid by taxpayer dollars whether they are college educated or not.  

“His policies will teach young people fiscal responsibility,” said political science professor Marshall DeRosa. “Take for example this free education. Nothing is free, somebody has to pay for it. I tell my students, ‘You think this is free? If you want free education, you will be paying for students to be sitting in these classrooms for the next 40-50 years — it’s not free.’”

Virgo said he believes that racism in society will be more widespread during Trump’s presidency.

“Not here, but I think across country. It’s going to be accepted, it’s going to be the norm,” he said. “Trump doesn’t look like a candidate that would clamp down on that type of stuff.”  

There are students who disagree and believe that Trump’s comments and statements have been taken out of context.

“He cares about American citizens, so when he says we’re doing all these things with immigration and deportation and allowing certain people to come in all of those things are for the better of the American people here,” Calhoun said. “What people need to realize is Trump is not racist, he’s not sexist, he’s not a xenophobe. What he cares about is America, he cares about the people in this country.”  

Because of how heavily Clinton was favored in polling data, many students remain in shock after seeing the results of the election early Wednesday morning.

Davani said, “I was extremely surprised, it seemed like there was little chance that Trump would win.”

Ryan Lynch is the editor in chief of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @RyanLynchwriter.

Joe Pye is the news editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @Jpeg3189.