As some students cheered the Election Day results that swept Republicans into office across the county, other people on campus said students might have a reason to be concerned about the results.
Junior public relations major Jenny Pyle said the GOP victories show "that we are ready for change in a good way."
"Barack Obama's message was change, but he wasn't the kind of change we needed," Pyle said.
Tuesday night, about 30 people filled the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Ballroom to watch the results at an election "watch party" sponsored by the political science department and Pi Sigma Alpha.
Nolan Born, president of University Democrats, said he expects the newly elected Republicans to follow through with their party's agenda.
"As soon as they get to Washington, I think they'll conform," he said. "The [GOP] will basically beat them down. For people that voted for these candidates, I really don't think that much is going to change."
Brad Gideon, a Ball State political science instructor, said students should be concerned about the new Congress and possible legislative changes that could affect them.
"I think tonight may not go well for some issues that I think students should be interested in," he said. "Some of the student loan provisions that were put in place in the last two years — Republicans have been running on the idea of getting rid of those to save money and bring down the deficit."
One piece of Obama's agenda that will likely stay in place despite the Republican sweep is the president's health care reform, Gideon said. The bill allows college students and other young people to remain covered under their parents' health insurance longer.
"Health care isn't going to be repealed," Gideon said. "The president will veto every attempt to repeal health care. However, Republicans will have the power to control funding for certain aspects of health care."
Leading up to Tuesday there were predictions that younger voters would not come to the polls, which was bad news for Democrats, who needed college-age voters to lift Obama to the White House two years ago.
Gideon said it looked like the predictions were right.
"I can almost guarantee that student participation is lower than it was in '08," he said.
A Republican House of Representatives and Democratic president may clash over the country's direction, but that's just fine for Ashley Canan, vice president of Ball State's political science honor society, Pi Sigma Alpha.
"I think that having a divided government is the best way to get out the best policies for the American people," she said. "Having a Democratic president and a conservative Congress, I feel that it will be more effective to get policies through. I feel like this will buckle down on what needs to be done and not just what one party wants."
Jack Meyer, and Devan Filchak contributed to this story.
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