Student reactions to Obama’s presidency so far are mixed

• Tweet
• 

It has been more than 500 days since President Barack Obama was sworn into office.

Stephanie Jaczkowski is more than 4,000 miles away from home, but that hasn’t stopped her from keeping up with President Obama’s administration.

The Clinton Township junior has been studying abroad in Warsaw, Poland since January.

She is not happy with many of Obama’s decisions.

“His promises of transparency in government, one of the few things I wholeheartedly support, has been made a mockery in the passing of the health care and stimulus packages,” Jaczkowski said in an e-mailed statement. “Members of Congress admitted that they didn’t know what they were voting for, and if they don’t know, how can millions of Americans know what was truly in the bill?”

She did not agree with him during his election campaign and said she does not think he has lived up to his promise of change.

“He had many different policies that I disliked,” she said. “The biggest problem I had with Obama is his support of large government in all aspects of American life. However, I had hoped that he would come through with his campaign promises of change and transparency of government.”

Bloomfield Hills senior Jasmine Crossland and Detroit alumna Sara Kirkland, however, both feel the president is on the right track.

“I feel like people are criticizing him to the extreme,” Kirkland said. “I’m sure he’s doing everything with a solid mind. I still trust him, I trust his policies. I think he’s doing a fine job as president for the amount of time he’s been in there.”

Kirkland and Crossland supported Obama during his election campaign.

“He came off as very genuine, somebody who really represented the people,” Kirkland said. “I liked his whole appeal. He seemed like a family man, he seemed knowledgeable. He seemed confident too, but humble.”

She feels Obama is making progress and living up to his promises of change.

As a recent graduate, Kirkland is grateful for the passing of the health care bill into law.

“That will allow me to stay on my parent’s insurance until I’m 26. I don’t have a job right now, without that I’d be cut off now.”

Crossland attended a speech by Obama in Detroit’s Cobo Arena in 2008.

“When I went to see him, I thought he was well spoken,” she said. “I thought that the issues he was targeting in his campaign as far as education and health care and trying to fix the economy were good stuff.”

She said she remains confident in the Obama administration.

“There’s a lot going on in our society now,” she said. “When you look at the economy ten years from now, that will really tell if he did the job he set out to do.”