Politics & Government

UPDATE: NOVA-Annandale Hosts President Obama's Town Hall Meeting

The President is expected to discuss his plans to reduce the deficit on Tuesday in his second visit to the college.

  • Correction: According to the White House, the invited total of students to the town hall is 500, not the 800 we previously reported in our live updates. The story has been changed to reflect this.

11:55 a.m.: President Obama's motorcade left Northern Virginia Community College's Annandale campus at 11:40 a.m. via Wakefield Chapel Road. Students leaving the Ernst Community Cultural Center were excited.

One student, taunting those who were waiting outside, said, "It was awesome! You all should have been there!"

Another student, who got to shake President Obama's hand, offered her hand for people to touch as she walked toward the buses that transported students from the Loudoun campus.

Find out what's happening in Annandalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A transcript of President Obama's remarks will be available later today on WhiteHouse.gov, under Speeches and Remarks.

11:35 a.m.: President Obama has just wrapped up his town hall event in Annandale on the campus of Northern Virginia Community College. He's shaking hands with students and faculty on the way out. Check out our .

Find out what's happening in Annandalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

10:57 a.m.: Dozens of students who are not inside the hall are watching a live internal feed of the speech in a student lounge area just inside the McDiarmid Building on campus. If you're not by a television, you can watch a live feed of the event on C-SPAN online.

10:42 a.m. Two students left the Ernst Community Cultural Center just before the president arrived. Seul Min Chung, 22, an international student from South Korea and friend Kayla Asonganyi, were hoping to catch a glimpse of the president at 10 a.m., but left because of a project that's due.

Isaac Blanton, of Hampton Roads, had just driven more than three hours to see the president. An invited guest, he wasn't allowed to enter after the president arrived. Disappointed, he said, "Security is tight. You have to protect the president."

10:35 a.m. Tuesday: President Obama's motorcade pulled up along the southwest side of the Ernst Community Cultural Center at 10:27 a.m. He is now speaking inside to more than 500 people.

10:05 a.m. Tuesday: President Obama is reportedly running a few minutes late this morning. A security officer at NOVA-Annandale said the president left the White House just before 10 a.m. President Obama's expected arrival time is 10:25 a.m.

Students are clamoring for vantage points around campus, trying to guess which route Obama's motorcade may take once on campus. Students inside the Ernst Community Cultural Center, clearly excited, have started to do "the wave" to pass the time.

Although the school worked hard to communicate with students and faculty about today's events, some were still surprised when they arrived on campus this morning.

Secret Service agents have been on campus since 3 a.m.

(Check out the photos from this morning, and look for a full photo gallery later today on Annandale Patch.)

9:55 a.m. Tuesday: Dozens of students from other NOVA campuses have been bused in to Annandale this morning to attend President Obama's town hall meeting. More than 500 people are already in the Ernst Community Cultural Center awaiting President Obama's arrival.

9:45 a.m. Tuesday: Multiple Secret Service agents in plain clothes have descended on the NOVA-Annandale campus, where President Obama is expected to speak in 30 minutes.

Students on campus who were not invited to attend the event this morning were still excited that President Obama was hosting the town hall here, including Menna Abriham, 20, an international student from Ethiopia studying business administration.

9:30 a.m. Tuesday: "There is definitely a lot of buzz" inside President Obama's town hall event at NOVA-Annandale, according to Annandale Patch Local Editor Sherell Williams. Almost all attendees, estimated at 500 people, are inside the Richard J. Ernest Community Cultural Center. President Obama is expected to speak at 10:15 a.m. Williams is live tweeting the event from @AnnandalePatch.

Students walking into adjacent buildings for class this morning are starting to complain about the lack of parking on campus. One student estimated that 25 percent of the surface parking lots are closed, and the garage adjacent to the Community Center is also apparently off limits at this time. Another student reported it took her 10 minutes to park.

9:10 a.m. Tuesday: More than 200 people are already inside the  Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, awaiting President Obama's arrival. (We have updated the original story, below, with additional information about attendees. More than 90 percent of those at the town hall will be NOVA students or faculty.)

In an email to Annandale Patch, NOVA Public Information Officer and Crisis Communications Officer Dustin Sternbeck wrote, "For an event of this nature, we have a fully staffed Emergency Operations Center that is tasked with oversight, coordination, logistics, execution, etc.  There will be numerous volunteers as well as NOVA police officers on-site at the event location seeing that everything runs smoothly.  Students were informed yesterday and were asked to make arrangements for the increase in traffic and visitors to the campus."

8:15 a.m. Tuesday: Neither traffic around Northern Virginia Community College nor parking on campus were worse than normal this morning—a surprise, considering much of on-campus parking has been blocked off.

Dozens of students, administrators and invited town hall guests are already lined up outside the Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center, where campus police and uniformed Secret Service agents are checking bags.

Annandale Patch Local Editor Sherell Williams is inside the town hall and is live tweeting from @AnnandalePatch.

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Original Story

Though classes will continue on their normal schedule, tomorrow will be a complicated and special day at the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College.

President Barack Obama is making his second presidential visit to the campus, hosting a town hall in the Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center Tuesday morning, April 19. He will talk about his plans to reduce the federal deficit. His first visit to the Annandale campus was July 13, 2009, when he discussed health care reform. This is Obama's first stop in a series of visits across the country.

According to Dustin Sternbeck, public information officer and crisis communication officer with Northern Virginia Community College, the college learned of the White House’s interest to hold the meeting at the Annandale campus last week.

The invitation-only event is scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m.

Each campus was allocated a set amount of invitations to the event, according to Sternbeck. About 90 percent of the attendees (or 800 people) at this town hall will be students or NOVA faculty, with the remainder of attendees being invited guests from local organizations. In addition, there will be more than 100 media representatives in attendance.

Toora Arsala, who is a freshman political science major at the Annandale campus, was selected by his advisor to attend the event. “I actually feel excited because President Obama is my inspiration and my role model,” said Arsala. “He’s coming to my school, it’s like a dream come true.” Arsala is also the volunteer coordinator for Team Fairfax with Obama’s Organizing for America, which encourages grassroots advocacy.

Local Parking and Traffic Impacted

All campus visitors and students are advised to enter and exit the college through the Lake Drive and Perimeter South Drive entrance (see the PDF map attached to this article, at right, for more information).

Sternbeck said the college is anticipating large amounts of parking congestion since the garage used by both visitors and permit holders and lots C-1, B-1, B-2, B-3, B-13 and C-3 will be closed starting Monday at 11 p.m. through 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Prior Presidential Visits

This will be Obama’s third speaking appearance at a NOVA college.

Obama followed his July 2009 visit to the Annandale campus with a s stop on the Alexandria campus March 30, 2010 with Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill Biden, who is the associate professor of English at NOVA’s Alexandria Campus, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other cabinet members to sign the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Annandale Patch will be covering the town hall event and reaction to it on Tuesday. Check back often for updates!


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