By Andrea Klerides
The Secret Service will be calling the University home for the next 132 days. That is how long the University has until it hosts the final presidential debate on Oct. 15.
The University is squeezing the most out of the remaining days. The three debate committees established by the University are hard at work; students can participate in a new game show, and 23 new classes have been added to the curriculum. The academic, student programming and community committees meet on a regular basis to discuss what events should be held, what new guest speakers they would like to have on campus and help unite faculty, students and the community throughout the process.
As part of the debate, the University launched Educate ’08, a year-long series of conferences, events and lectures in an effort to increase political awareness on and off campus. Freshman John Santucci is very excited about the addition of 23 courses to the roster. He says he’s most excited about learning how the campaign process works in class and then having the chance to see it all happen in front of him when the candidates debate on campus. In addition, the University has added classes for its three summer sessions dealing with contemporary politics and the road to the White House. Many of the classes are specific to the 2008 election, with titles such as “From Abigail Adams to Hillary Clinton: Can a Woman Be Elected President of the United States?” and “Analyzing and Teaching the 2008 Elections.”Chairperson to the student programming committee, Jayne Brownell, is also enthusiastic about the upcoming events on campus. She has a list over six pages long of events and guest speakers for the current semester. While she can’t release any names for the fall yet, Brownell said a lot of “big name” people have been asked to speak at the University.
So far, such visitors as New York Times writer Maureen Dowd, Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard and FOX News, and political strategists Mary Matalin and James Carvel have come to the University. ‘The America Cup’ was a game show hosted in April, which gave students “bragging rights” on what they knew about American politics.
Students can guarantee themselves a busy next semester as Brownell fine tunes the calendar for this Fall with more speakers and even concerts in the works.