By Sara Kay

The thought of a circus scares the life out of me.

As a kid, you probably liked the circus for the lions, the acrobats and that odd-looking woman with too much facial hair. Not me, though. I refused to go to the circus because of the horrifying reaction I always got from it. All those weird faces and everything were oversized! It was too unreal for me as a kid and to this day I’m haunted by the thought of a circus.

Well, folks, unless you’ve been studying under a rock for the past month, the University has officially become a circus. I think I’ve officially “found my edge,” and it’s at a cliff.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m almost too excited that the third and final debate is being held here. It’s amazing to think that when I applied to the University as a senior in high school, my friends asked me if the name of the college was just a weird sneeze noise I was making, and now people are saying how jealous they are that I go here and asking if I get them a ticket? Gee, wouldn’t it be great if students were given an opportunity like that?

But I digress. The point is that I’ve become accustomed to my surroundings here, as I believe we all have. This campus is generally calm and collected. Sure, there are the occasional “Days of Dialogue” in which people scream about baby killers and polluted air and what not, but I’ve grown used to such free speech and have learned to zone it out if it’s something so incredibly dumb that it doesn’t even deserve to be said into a microphone.

However, since the beginning of this semester, the University seems to be falling away from it’s every day demeanor. The debate has stirred up a media frenzy like never before, and everywhere I turn there’s a news truck or a tent with camera crews or a huge sign asking me to show my debate pictures or a giant pit of fire billowing smoke out of it! Well, maybe not a fire pit, but you see where I’m going. This campus is no longer what it used to be and it probably will never fully fall back into place again. This has gone from a good public relations tactic to making campus look like Capitol Hill threw up all over it.

And maybe I don’t want to show my Debate ’08 pride. There are some things a girl just likes to keep to herself.

It all started with those damn blue signs that were put up last year in front of all the buildings. Walking around this campus is now like walking around a kindergarten class room where the print is in big bold writing the kids can read it more easily I suppose it’s similar to that of a theme park, too, where the signs have to be huge so before you get on the ride that will eventually make you lose your lunch, you know that the name of the ride is “The Tummy Twirler.” I suppose we all thought it would stop after that.

But oh, no, Hofstra, you just had to step it up a notch and make the debate a three-ring fiesta for everyone in the entire country to stare at. As if the signs and banners all over the campus aren’t enough, there are now student groups putting together giant protests on populated parts of campus, on the likely chance that a member of the media will spot this open dialogue and want to put them on the evening news.

What, you thought they were there to actually get their message across to the rest of the student body?

So readers, in the days that follow the final presidential debate, be prepared. Don’t be surprised if there are media people scurrying all over the campus, asking for a quote or two about your experience at the University and how you felt about the debate being here. At this point, don’t be too shocked to see a a fat bearded woman riding a camel with three eyes. Because if that doesn’t scream Barnum and Bailey, then I don’t know what does.

Sara Kay is a junior print journalism student. You may e-mail her at [email protected].