FREDONIA, N.Y. — Sept. 26, 2008 — On Tuesday, Oct. 7, SUNY Fredonia will serve as one of a handful of host locations in New York for the DebateWatch voter education program. Sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, DebateWatch is part of a nationwide effort to foster voter education and participatory democracy.
The university will moderate a public discussion of campaign issues following the 90-minute televised debate of presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. The program will take place at 9 p.m. in 209 McEwen Hall, where the debate will be shown on the lecture hall’s screen.
This is scheduled to be the third debate of the 2008 presidential campaign and will be held in a town-hall format at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. Tom Brokaw, former anchor of “NBC Nightly News” and current interim moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press”, will serve as moderator.
Locally, the post-debate discussion will be led by two SUNY Fredonia professors: Dr. David Rankin from the department of political science, and Dr. Linda Brigance from the department of communication. Student political groups and the League of Women Voters will also be participating. Non-partisan campus sponsors at Fredonia include the Political Science Association and the Political Science Club student groups.
“DebateWatch is a unique opportunity to view and discuss the presidential debate, the candidates and related issues as a campus community,” said Dr. Rankin, who authored a book on the 2004 presidential campaign and is developing another for the current one. “It is certainly a memorable and informative experience, not only watching a live presidential debate with so many others, but also hearing and discussing diverse perspectives in the post-debate forum.”
The campus is serving as a host site for DebateWatch for the third time. The 500 participants SUNY Fredonia drew in 2004 ranked as the second-largest attendance among colleges and universities nationwide. This year’s event is open to students, faculty and the general public.
