With the election over, and President-elect Barack Obama preparing to take command, students and staff at SF State are eager for action from the new administration and nervous about whether he can implement real change in the coming year.

The priority issues students and teachers said they hoped the president-elect would address first centered primarily on the economy, health care and recovery of the United States’ international prominence as an example of human rights and foreign diplomacy.

Mabin Mark, a 23-year-old international relations major at SF State, said the economy was the first thing a new president needed to correct to have the stability for improvement of all other aspects of government.

“He really needs to re-regulate the banking industry,” Mark said. “The industry has to be stopped from playing fast and loose with the economic system.” Mark said the lines of division between banks, securities and industry need to be redefined by Obama so the failure in one venue does not spell the collapse of the entire system.

Mark said the U.S. war on terrorism had reduced credibility with other nations during the Bush administration and that Obama needs to improve the nation’s standing in the international community for its own security.

“A war on terror is like a war on the Great Depression,” Mark said. “We have exacerbated the terrorist threat to our country in the last eight years.”

Mark was dubious Obama could make dramatic changes to government but said there was hope. “His very novelty might give him, and us, the advantage needed with the rest of the world.”

David Lee, a political science instructor at SF State in addition to commissioner of San Francisco Recreation and Parks and executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, was more optimistic Obama could tackle the three most important issues facing the United States.

“Economy. Economy. And third, economy,” Lee said. “The crisis of the American economy is touching you, touching us, and it is touching everyone.” Lee said the new president had to focus on the failing auto industry, the banking industry, and the U.S. and international credit system. “He has to make the economy his top priority, otherwise he is not going to get a second term to make all the changes everyone is hoping for.”

With international crises brewing in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and possibly North Korea, Lee said, the U.S. needs to establish itself as a cooperative part of the international community. Lee said the announcement by Obama aides that prisoners from Guantanamo Bay would be tried in U.S. courts was an indication the president-elect was going to establish a new era of human rights under his administration, and win back the trust and respect of many nations around the world.

The Bush administration held to the Guantanamo Bay policy despite protests both domestic and international, Lee said, and an early move to change the policy would indicate to the world a real change in leadership. “It tells the world, this is a new day,” he said.

Obama will have the power to direct the national government effectively in the first year, according to Lee. “Obama enters the presidency with unprecedented party control of both upper and lower Houses of congress, including possibly the most powerful speaker of the house, with Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat has ever had,” Lee said. He said the last time a Democrat had complete control of Congress was so long ago he could not remember it.

“He is poised to make significant policy changes,” Lee said. “The country wants change. The country is behind Obama.”

Katherine Younginkim, 25, is completing her master’s degree in international relations after earning her bachelor’s in journalism and international relations from Korea University in her home of South Korea. After three years in the U.S., Younginkim said she hoped Obama would change policy so democracy was restored to the nation.

“I want people in the U.S. to behave like civilized people to the world,” Younginkim said. “I don’t think Iraqi people want to change the way the U.S. intends and it seems better to bring the troops home as safely as we can by asking Iraqis what they want and need to develop peace.”

Younginkim said she hoped Obama could help the United States. to “save face” with other nations and gain back some respect in the world.