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Western Hosted Inauguration Neighborhood Ball
On Tuesday, January 20, Western Illinois University students celebrated the inauguration of President Barack Obama at their own 'Neighborhood Ball.' WIU was one of the few campuses selected as a 'Neighborhood Ball' site, an idea conceived by President Obama who wanted to include people from across the United States in all the celebrations.
Western registered their 'Neighborhood Inaugural Ball Events' on the Presidential Inaugural Committee's website. But Western did not find out that they had been chosen until the night before the inauguration. Tera Monroe '96 MS '98, the Director of Residence Life, worked with Resident Assistants to quickly spread the word through the student body about this opportunity to showcase the enthusiasm of WIU students. A day later, several hundred students arrived in the Bayliss/Henninger Underground for the opportunity to be a part of history in the making.
The Inaugural Committee hired a company to capture video images of Neighborhood Ball Events from around the world and posted them online.  When the broadcast went live, the Western crowd, including Rocky, got excited; they waved tiny American flags and chanted “Obama,” “WIU,” and “U.S.A.” The webcast lasted for about five minutes and was streamed onto a video wall at the Neighborhood Ball in Washington D.C. Select webcasts were picked up by ABC and broadcast nationally.
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