Tuesday’s return to classes after a three-day weekend didn’t stop students, faculty and staff from gathering to watch President Barack Obama’s historical inauguration — but a false fire alarm momentarily brought the viewing to a screeching halt for those in the Student Union. About 200 gathered in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Union for the ceremony, which was shown courtesy of Campus Life. Only a few minutes into Obama’s speech, a false fire alarm sounded through the Union, forcing students to evacuate the building and miss about five minutes of Obama’s nearly 18-minute address. Information Technology Services streamed the inauguration on their Web site and worked with Campus Life to show the coverage on televisions in the main entrance of the Union, Himes Hall and multiple locations in Middleton Library.Ronald Garay, mass communication media history professor, dismissed his morning class early and canceled his noon class.”It’s a celebration. It’s a ceremony. It’s a tradition,” Garay said of the inauguration. “I think it’s important for students to see the inauguration … I would imagine a lot of professors have let their classes out.”Garay called the ceremony the opportunity to watch history in the making.”There’s so much symbolism in an inauguration,” Garay said. “[Like] a president moving into a White House built by slaves.”Dave Dessauer, a human resources education teaching assistant, said his class met in the Cotillion Ballroom to watch the inauguration as a group.”It’s an important day for the country, and we definitely don’t want to take this experience away from people,” Dessauer said. “It’s really a great experience that our class can share together.”Dessauer commended the University for the watch party in the Union.”I think it’s really neat that people can come here [to] not just watch it as a class but as an LSU community,” Dessauer said.Erica Martin, writing and performing arts senior and member of the human resources education class, said she appreciated the opportunity to watch the inauguration as part of her class.”It’s an important thing; it’s never happened in our country before so I think everyone should be watching it,” Martin said.Martin said she would have watched the inauguration at some point during the day regardless of class cancellations.Tamara Nauman, chemistry instructor, said she didn’t cancel her noon chemistry class because Tuesday is “a class day at LSU.””We have a certain amount of material we have to cover,” Nauman said. “Otherwise, it won’t get covered.”Nauman said she doesn’t take roll, but her class was full.Sheri Thompson, Information Technology communications and planning officer, said IT made the inauguration available for streaming through the IT Web site to ensure the on-campus wireless Internet would operate as normal.”We assumed that a lot of people would be wanting to watch it from the convenience of their computer,” Thompson said. “We wanted to make sure that people who were trying to use the Internet would still be able to get the kind of connectivity that they’re used to … By streaming it, we’re able to better [control] the kind of bandwidth that’s used.”Thompson said the streaming efforts were successful — IT didn’t received any complaints.Mary Norris, nursing freshman, said none of her classes were canceled today.”I have class at [noon] … I have to do a biology quiz,” Norris said. “I taped it so I’ll probably watch it later with my roommates.”——Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]