Melissa Canales voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. But now, she is frustrated with the decisions he has made during his first two years as president.

‘Before he used to appeal to us with student loans, and now, it’s like — that’s it,’ said Canales, a junior accounting major.

Canales said she wishes Obama would appeal more to students, like he did during his presidential campaign. She has had difficulty taking out private student loans since Obama was in office, she said.

Only 44 percent of students nationwide currently approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, which is a decrease from the 60 percent of students who approved in May 2009, according to a September survey by mtvU and The Associated Press.

There were 2,207 randomly selected 18- to 24-year-old students from 40 four-year universities with at least 1,000 undergraduates who participated in the survey. The question about Obama was one of 48 questions on the survey, which was mostly about how students use technology.

The excitement surrounding Obama’s youth, energy and vitality has died down since Obama took office and faced the challenges of governing, said Robert Wilson, faculty adviser for College Democrats at Syracuse University.

‘Students, like many people in the rest of the country, are frustrated by the lack of progress on many major issues,’ Wilson said.

Wilson said people tend to overlook Obama’s accomplishments during his first two years in office, such as avoiding a second Great Depression, because there have not been tangible results.

‘The fear was, when he was coming in, the country was going to slip into another Depression. And we didn’t,’ Wilson said. ‘We’ve avoided this enormous catastrophe, but you don’t really get credited.’

The percent of students who disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job as president increased from 15 percent in May 2009 to 27 percent in September 2010, according to the press survey.

But Wilson said Obama has been focusing on students, especially on important issues that will affect them in the future, such as global warming.

‘One of the things he’s trying to do is put a set of particularly economic, social and environmental policies that will improve things for the long term,’ Wilson said. ‘Long-term problems that students will be living with for decades to come.’

Daniel Fitzpatrick, former president and current member of College Republicans, said he has noticed support for Obama on SU campus has waned. He said he has seen less people wearing Obama T-shirts this year, as well as a decrease in Obama posters and stickers.

‘The fever that gripped the campus during the election year has really kind of died down significantly,’ said Fitzpatrick, who is also a senior political science and history major. ‘I think people are less excited, less bold.’

But Fitzpatrick also said he believes the majority of SU students still favor Obama, especially because SU is mostly a liberal campus. Students on college campuses also tend to be idealistic, rather than realistic, he said.

‘It’s still an image thing. I think it’s the fact that he plays basketball, and he’s healthy, he’s young,’ Fitzpatrick said. ‘They want to see a guy that’s telling them everything is going to be good.’

Fitzpatrick said he thinks Obama will not be able to regain student approval until he is out of the office, when students will be able to support him because of his personality, rather than as a president.

‘A lot of people think Obama is going to come in, rip off his shirt, and they’ll see a Superman sign, and he’ll take care of all the world’s problems,’ Fitzpatrick said. ‘But there isn’t a whole lot that he has done that says, ‘Wow, he has really brought the country forward.”

Michael Morisseau, a junior accounting major, said he thinks one of the things students disapprove of is the way Obama is dealing with the economic crisis. People expect results quickly, he said, but it will take time to resolve the crisis.

‘In terms of the economy, the way that he’s gone about it, it was slow to progress. But at the same time, it shows the result,’ Morisseau said. ‘They don’t understand that it takes time to progress.’

Morisseau said he approves of the job Obama has done so far as president, but said there are ways in which he thinks Obama could improve. For instance, Morisseau said when Obama deals with issues, such as the stimulus package, he could be more open to listening to the opposing ideas and suggestions.

‘I think he should be more open to opinions, instead of blocking out other parties, and see what they have to say,’ he said.

With the upcoming midterm elections, Obama’s student approval rating may prove to be a factor. Wilson said the support for Obama may reflect overall support for Democratic candidates.

The September survey may prompt students to question themselves before the midterm election, Wilson said, and ask, ‘Are we still supportive of Obama after what he’s done over the past two years?’

Shkim11@syr.edu