IU remembers 'optimist;' students to attend D.C., funeral

On March 30, 1981, IU was torn.\nThe excitement of winning the NCAA basketball title was shadowed by a nation's fear for its ailing president who had been shot outside a Washington, D.C., hotel earlier that day.\nTwenty-three years later, IU remembers the same bittersweet feeling as it mourns the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, who died Saturday at his Bel Air, Calif. home. \nReagan was 93.\nAmerican flags are flying at half-staff around campus today in honor of Reagan, who served as president from 1981 to 1989. \nIU College Republicans Chairman Angel Rivera said he was shocked, but not surprised, when he heard the news of Reagan's death.\n"We had been expecting it for years, but we're still sad to see him die," he said.\nRivera said from the Republicans' point of view, "we're all sad to see a great man go." \nHe believes Reagan did great things for both the country and the conservative movement. \n"He saved it," Rivera said. "He took the country at a time when both the conservative movement and the country were in shambles, and built it back up."\nThough conservatives will miss Reagan, Rivera believes his death will unite the Republican Party -- especially with the presidential election coming in the fall. \nSome historians are calling Reagan one of the top-five presidents in U.S. history, and Rivera agrees.\n"I think Lincoln redefined the presidency. (Franklin) Roosevelt expanded it, and I think Reagan brought it back to what it was supposed to be," he said.\nReagan's optimism and attractive personality was what made him one of the most popular presidents in our history, said IU political science professor Marjorie Hershey. \n"A lot of people judge political candidates not so much on the basis of issues, but rather on the basis of their judgment of that candidate as a neighbor, as a friend or as someone who you would invite to dinner," she said. "And Reagan was very attractive along those lines."\nProfessor Karen Rasler, who specializes in foreign policy issues, believes Reagan's legacy will be his part in bringing the Cold War to an end. Hershey agrees he will be remembered for this historical landmark, as well as being one of the pivitol figures in the revival of the Republican Party's stance.\nReagan was the most public figure for the conservative movement -- a time when the republican platform changed markedly about a variety of social issues, Hershey said. \n"It was a way in which the leaders of the Christian right and the leaders of the Republican right found a common cause," she said. "And that energized the Republican Party."\nThe fusion of these two rights created a solid constituency for the Republican Party. Hershey said Southern fundamentalists who had previously identified themselves as Democrats began to vote republican because they were energized by Reagan. At the time, Reagan also appealed to many young voters.\nBut now, during a time when most IU undergraduates were born in the 1980s and have very little historical background, they just see Reagan as an "older president," Rasler said.\nTwo undergraduates studying in the Indiana Memorial Union Sunday didn't even know Reagan had died. \n"I know he was a president," one of them said, "sometime during kindergarten." \nBut seven IU undergraduates who know a little more about Reagan plan to honor the former president by traveling 10 hours to Washington, D.C., for his state funeral later this week. All seven students are IU College Republicans members. \n"It's paying our respects and honoring Reagan one last time," Rivera said. "It feels like our duty -- like we owe him."\nWhen asked if the 10-hour trip was worth while, Rivera replied in sorrow, "It's Reagan."\n-- Contact staff writer Christina Galoozis at cgaloozi@indiana.edu.