Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced his campaign for president at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Monday. Liberty is a Christian school founded by conservative pastor Jerry Falwell in 1971.

Student attendance at Cruz's presidential campaign announcement was mandatory, according to The New York Times.

A group of students showed up to the announcement wearing shirts supporting Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who will most likely rival Cruz in 2016.

Others took to Yik Yak, an anonymous social app, to talk about what was happening in front of them.

Some students didn't seem to like Cruz's appealing to college students in his announcement.





"Announcing here was a genius move on his part. To everyone else it looks like he has an audience of 10,000 young adult supporters," one student said. "They don't know we have to be here."

Reactions from students were largely not positive.

Yik Yak lets anyone in a 1-1/2-mile radius post musings that other nearby users can upvote or downvote.