News > November 29, 2007

By Molly Nevola | Staff writer

The university was chosen Nov. 19 as a backup site for the 2008 presidential debates, which will be held in September and October of next year. The Commission on Presidential Debates, which announced last April that it was considering 19 applicants to host the debates, named Wake Forest and Centre College in Danville, Ky., as backup sites for the actual host sites the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., and Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

A vice presidential debate will be held in October at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

The university has previously hosted two presidential debates — between George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000 and between George Bush and Michael Dukakis in 1998. According to Sandra Boyette, senior advisor to the president, based on the experience of these two occasions, the university did not have an official committee but rather asked a variety of qualified university personnel to help write the proposal to the CPD. These individuals included Jennifer Richwine, director of university events, Jim Coffey, manager of landscaping services, and other members of Facilities Management, several representatives from Information Systems and Chief Regina Lawson along with other officers from University Police.

The university also enlisted endorsement from the Winston-Salem community from figures like Mayor Allen Joines, Police Chief Pat Norris and the Winston-Salem Police Department, Stephen Dragisic and Bob McCoy of the Winston-Salem Convention and Visitors Bureau and Gayle Anderson from the Chamber of Commerce. The university then submitted a formal proposal including very specific information, much of it technical, that the CPD required. The CPD, a non-partisan, non-profit commission, has two formats for debates. One of the debates will be in the “town meeting” format in a small venue where candidates can walk around and engage audience members. The other three debates will be with a moderator, a panel of journalists and the two candidates.

Wait Chapel does not work for the “town meeting” format, but it does work well for the standard, moderated format, Boyette said. “Therefore, if any of the venues that match our capability has to withdraw for any reason, Wake Forest would be called,” she said.

Paul Kirk, Jr., co-chairman of the CPD, released the dates, sites and formats of the three presidential and one vice presidential debate for the 2008 election Nov. 19 and interviewed with NPR to discuss the changes that will be made. All debates will be 90 minutes in length and begin at 9 p.m. Each will be administered by a single moderator. As for the presidential debate, the first will focus on domestic policy, the second (in the town meeting format) on issues raised by members of the audience and the third on foreign policy. Kirk noted one change in the format of the first and third presidential debates as well as the vice presidential debate. Each of those debates will be divided into eight 10-minute segments in which the moderator will introduce an issue and each candidate will comment, leaving time for direct exchange between candidates after each has answered individually. Additionally, time will be reserved for closing statements by each candidate. Kirk commented on the new CPD changes and the Commission’s mission to promote voter education of the public, noting that loosening the constraints will allow for a more serious examination of the questions raised. “The public deserves to hear and see the candidates offer and defend their positions on the critical issues facing our country in the most thoughtful and in-depth manner that television time constraints will allow,” Kirk said.

Kirk said that allowing the candidates to engage in an open exchange will open the possibility of the moderator inviting them to question each other. “We want voters to benefit from as full an explanation of a topic as possible, and we feel certain that the candidates will welcome this change for the same reason,” he said.

As for university preparations, a group will be meeting in early 2008 to determine what exactly it entails, but the university will not be spending any money to prepare as a backup site. Boyette said that although the university is disappointed that it was not chosen as a host site, recognizing the many factors that go into such a decision, it is very glad to be chosen as a backup site.

Various students on campus have had mixed feelings in wake of the decision by the CPD to announce the university as a backup site. Senior Jim Dorsey said that with next year’s election being such an important one, he wishes the university had been selected even though he will have already graduated. “I think it’s unfortunate that we weren’t selected, especially in light of the fact that we’ve hosted two,” he said.

On the other hand, senior Bryan Keith said that in the grand scheme of things, the fact that the university was not chosen to host is negligible. “In terms of prestige and university recognition our selection is a great thing, but in all honesty, these debates are nothing more than choreographed grandstanding opportunities for non-committal politicians. They mean nothing substantive,” he said.

According to the CPD site visit team whose members visited campus in June, Wake Forest was very well prepared and had an excellent proposal. This year, the Commission chose three sites that had never hosted a debate before and one venue, Washington University, that had hosted previously. “I think that the Commission made a decision to select new venues. It’s hard to say how much of a factor that was,” Boyette said.

Boyette said that she hopes that the university will again apply to host a debate in four years. “It’s one of the most exciting and educational events that can happen on a campus, and it gets students especially very involved with what is perhaps our democracy’s most important exercise: electing a president.”