Barack Obama, who won the overwhelming support of college students, faculty members, and higher-education officials during his campaign, will be the next president of the United States. His election on Tuesday breaks a racial barrier, making the U.S. senator from Illinois the first black man to ascend to the nationâ??s top job.
Mr. Obama, who taught constitutional law as a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago and was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, campaigned on a platform that called for increased aid to students, a doubling of federal funds for basic research, and government grants to â??successful community collegesâ? that train unemployed workers in emerging industries.