DU paused as did much of the world to witness the live broadcast of Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th president last Tuesday.

About 460 students and faculty attended inauguration parties held in Driscoll Student Center, the International House and Craig Hall at the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW).

In addition, another 30 or so journalism and mass communication students watched the live feed of the inauguration in the Mass Communications Building, as did students in classes across campus.

About 180 students, staff, faculty and community members met in Sidelines Pub and the Village Commons in the Driscoll Student Center to watch the inauguration ceremony.

The Office of Internationalization hosted about 130 people at the International House, and the Graduate School of Social Work had about 150 people at the watch party in the community room at Craig Hall.

The Sidelines Pub and Village Commons were popular spots for students to catch some of the inauguration coverage between classes. Freshman Catherine Knoth’s political science class got let out early so she could join the watch party at the Pub.

The International House saw an even mix of international and domestic students, according to Glenn Summers, community outreach coordinator at the Office of Internationalization.

“The international students were especially intrigued by the fact that the U.S. held a ceremony to change presidents,” Summers said.

“I wish I was American so I could vote,” said senior and international student Tareq Alfares, who is from Kuwait and watched the inauguration from Village Commons.

“Obama talked about all nations, all races, and that’s something to remember.”

People who attended the event at the GSSW saw coverage streamed in high definition from CBS News, according to Ryan Garrett, manager of Technology Operations at Craig Hall.

“We didn’t experience the poor quality that many others who tried to stream online did, since DU has a network device that buffers streaming content from Viacom and ESPN,” Garrett said.

In the Mass Communications building, two journalism classes that were held during the time of the inauguration watched the ceremony and the speech that followed, and then spent the rest of the class period discussing the event. Other classes across campus also paused to watch the ceremony.

Junior Jeremy Lynch, co-chairman of the DU Republicans, watched the inauguration in his class at the Daniels College of Business.

“As a Republican, I want to grow overall civic engagement and inspire the youth of our country to become conservative,” Lynch said. “The election has opened the eyes of the world and now the Republican party must come together and become activists.”

“[The inauguration speech] wasn’t the usual ‘Yes We Can’ speech. It was really what America is going to have to do, and Obama said we all have to do it, so I thought that was pretty amazing,” said freshman Alexa Kreisberg, who attended the Sidelines Pub watch party.

Junior Anne Knack was studying abroad at Belgrano University in Buenos Aires, Argentina on voting day but still managed to get in her ballot.

Knack’s host school made a point to collect American students’ ballots every Friday and deliver them to the U.S. Embassy for the students.

“Our country is ready for a change, and it’s not about people’s personal beliefs, whether it’s racial or religious or whatnot,” Knack said. “There’s a lot more freedom in our country thanks to this election.”

“This is a pivotal moment not only for U.S. history, but for world history, and you’re having a direct impact on that by voting, so in effect you’re having a direct impact on how the world actually goes,” junior and Young Democrats member Brian Clenin said. “That’s pretty cool.”