Students voice opinions on presidential debate at viewing party

October 15, 2008
By Ashley Rueff
Staff Writer

Only eight students showed up to watch the second presidential debate in the Student Center last Tuesday, a program sponsored by UIS Forensics and Lambda Pi Eta, a communication studies honor society.    

Thomas Bartl, professor and director of UIS Forensics, a speech and debate team, said the two organizations wanted to foster an environment for students to learn about and discuss the presidential election.     

“It's important to do programs like this to give students an outlet for their opinions,” Bartl said. “These debates are a good way to get a synopsis to the campaign.     

Brittany Holmes, president of UIS's chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, said she wanted to hold the program so students can be a part of the historic election.     

“I think a lot of us believe that this is really important,” Holmes said. “It's really important to know what the issues are.”     

Holmes, herself, wasn't able to attend the beginning of the debate-watching program because she had a night class. She suspected many other students also had class, which accounted for the low student attendance for the program.     

Junior Jessica Schmit missed the first half of the debate because she too was at class, but she made it in time to hear the two candidates discuss their proposed changes for the nation's health care system.   

She doesn't agree with McCain's plan and has personal reasons to back up her position. Her father is a small business owner and she thinks McCain's plan would hurt small businesses.     

“It makes me really angry,” she said. “I don't think that taxing health care is the answer.”     

Schmit is an Obama supporter and is also involved in the College Democrats organization.       

She wasn't the only Obama supporter at the program. Sophomore Dara Abina plans on voting for Obama, but she attended the program to discuss the debate with other students.     

“I watched the last debate and I saw how McCain was really mean to Obama, so I wanted to see if Obama would hit him hard like he should,” Abina said.       

Later, her friend sophomore Betsy Havtes joined Abina to watch the debate. Havtes hasn't yet made up her mind about which candidate will get her vote.     

“I wanted to see what they were talking about,” Havtes said.

By the end of the debate, few students were left to hold a discussion. Ricky Harris said McCain was very stiff and robotic like in his movements which made him seem awkward.     

After the debate, Bartl said the format of the town hall meeting didn't work well for the debate because the candidates still managed to turn their individual questions into a negative point against their opponent. He added that the time limits were too short to really allow for full answers.     

“The format was unfortunate to begin with and (the moderator) did the best he could with it.”