Walking around campus two weeks ago, you would have thought that Hofstra was the most politically active university this side of UC Berkeley. Students were organized, clubs were motivated and everyone generally seemed to give a damn.

It was invigorating to walk around with all of the excitement surging throughout campus in the days leading up to the debate. Unfortunately, Oct. 16 came, and all of that political awareness and campaigning went away, just like the signs decorating our dear University.

What gives? Were we really that good at faking social awareness for the benefit of the news cameras? With the election looming next week, tension is rising and the candidates have been out in full campaign mode urging every single human being who is now eligible to vote (thanks to Jason Mraz for reminding us to register) to go out and do so.

But now that the hoopla of the national media attention has gone away and the University is no longer the eyewall of the storm, what is it doing to raise awareness about the actual election? There were Debate Watch parties galore prior to the one we hosted. It was truly inspiring to see how many students turned out to watch the simulcast of the debate at the University-organized viewing parties when so many could just as easily have remained in their rooms and watched it on TV like the rest of the nation.

Now, the University seems to have returned to its old ways of generally caring less about national politics, we responded in kind and have fallen away from our flash-in-the-pan political frenzy.

Having the debate here was incredibly exciting, yes. But the candidates’ leaving Hofstra doesn’t make this election any less exciting. It is still one of the most interesting and intense presidential races in our nation’s history, and will most likely be among the top in our lifetime.

So why isn’t Hofstra helping us organize and get excited about it again?

There should be election parties, poll result watches and some sort of buzz created by the administration on the night of Nov. 4 like there was Oct. 15. We’re afraid that with the University leaving activities involving Election Day by the wayside, students will too.

There was so much progress made as a result of having the debate here; it’s a shame to see it lost.