So I was walking to Carroll to go to the Park Library, and then there were probably at least 50 people on the steps of Carroll Hall. Confused by this, I saw a friend who is also in the J-School and I asked him what was going on. He said he heard from other people that Obama was in Carroll and that his daughter is touring the J-School. I thought that was far-fetched. I mean when I toured UNC, I didn’t just go tour Carroll first thing. Also, wouldn’t there be secret service around and wouldn’t there be like dozens of photos of him already? Then someone shouted Obama is in Carolina Hall and there was a stampede of people with umbrellas running towards Carolina Hall. Side note, I personally have never run on UNC’s campus besides working out, or running to Franklin after we beat Duke, because I just can’t do the awkward bookbag run. This is especially true when trying to catch a bus. I’ve seen so many people run for a bus and then miss it. My first year I had a class in the Global Center and a class in Cobb back to back, and I power walked that every Friday. 

Back to the point. It was raining, muddy, and people were falling and dodging umbrellas. I also have a fear of getting poked in the eye by umbrellas and nothing makes that fear more prevalent than UNC on a rainy day.

I walked over to Carolina Hall and that building was beyond full. You could not get into that building. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder and there was no Obama there. Which why would he be there? They have the exhibit of how they changed the name and it’s also the geography department, and religious studies. I’ve never heard of seeing that on a campus tour. No one said his daughter wants to do geography because that’s just so random. Then someone said he is in the B-School, which I know Obama is a super cool dude but as far as I know he is not superhuman, and the only way he would get there that fast is if he took an Uber or got in a car without anyone noticing and didn’t miss any of the stoplights, or if he just sprinted to the B-School which is at least a mile away. Then someone said he is at the Old Well which like you are going to be able to see him if he is at the Old Well.

Also, what are people going to do if they see him because you’re not gonna be able to get a selfie with him especially if you’re charging at him. I guess at most the best possible outcome is you could say “hey Obama” and then he might nod at you or say hello. He might mean more to other people and I am very well aware of the reasons for that, but I don’t necessarily think the way to show someone how important he is to you is to run mob style looking for him, especially if he is with his daughter.

Then in my History of Basketball, Race, and the United States class, my professor tweeted a day before the class that he would love for Obama to come into class and give a guest lecture because we read part of his autobiography for that class. I heard people saying that Obama will probably be in that race class, (how did that get shortened to that?). When my professor revealed that Obama probably won’t come it was just “me tweeting at him,” 20-30 people who aren’t in the class just left the lecture hall. Again what is the plan here?

Then someone from UNC Public Safety tweeted that Obama isn’t on campus, but people were like of course they would say that. I don’t really believe that Obama was here because no one ever saw him, and people kept looking at random tweets, or I don’t know what their source of information was. 

I saw Obama my first year when he came here to speak. I almost passed out from the heat, but I saw him. I think most juniors and seniors saw him that day too. So that’s like 40% of the undergraduate population. 

If he was actually here then that’s pretty cool, but at the same time not so cool because Sasha could’ve been trying to enjoy a campus tour and saw a mob and been like this is really weird. I don’t know if she would come here. UNC is a great school and all, but his kids have lineage to three Ivy League schools. I don’t know who started the rumor, I don’t know how it spread so fast, all I do know is that first of all, Obama is a person, and he like everyone else deserves his privacy, especially around his family, and secondly, there were professors cancelling classes for Obama’s presence on campus. There was widespread chaos and UNC as a whole got played. Fake news and rumors and lies on Twitter are very real, check your sources and don’t get played.