U. could still host presidential debate

While Monday's announcement that the University would serve as an alternate site for a presidential debate disappointed many on campus, students and administrators are hoping Penn still stands a chance at gaining the national spotlight. Despite the fact that Penn received the highest ranking of the nine sites vying for the debates, the Presidential Debate Commission decided to name it as one of three alternates. Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol Scheman said the University still plans to organize events relating to political activities, in hopes that the commission will end up holding a debate here. Scheman met yesterday with Provost Stanley Chodorow and Annenberg School for Communication Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson to discuss activities preceding the debate, such as mock debates and symposia dealing with community political issues. "We would have planned a set of student- and faculty-run programs around the concept of the debate," Scheman said. "We still may plan some of the activities, but the themes would be more direct and obvious if the debate was coming here. "I think that it is an important opportunity for the University to engage in a central political process," she added. Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson and College senior Lance Rogers said he was disappointed with the commission's decision. "I was surprised, shocked and ultimately let down," Rogers said. "It would have been a great opportunity for students to take part in the debate process." Rogers added that, had the University been selected as a debate site, he would have organized a forum on campus to give students a chance to speak about a variety of local and national issues. At the forum, the students would have compiled a list of issues they wanted the presidential candidates to address while on campus. The forum would have been sponsored by Philadelphia radio station WHYY-FM. But there is still a reasonable chance that the University could host a debate. Executive Director of the Commission on Presidential Debates Janet Brown said the Commission examines the adequacy of the site's facilities, services such as hotels and transportation and financial support. "Penn has a beautiful facility, Philadelphia is a major transportation center and there are plenty of hotels in the area," Brown said. "The mayor supported the idea, and the financial support was adequate as well." Brown said the Commission's decision to revert to an alternate site depends primarily on the site's geographical location, transportation and the availability of the site on the date scheduled for the debate. "The candidates agree to an eight day schedule, which means that we cannot go past a certain radius," Brown said. "We have to truck our equipment, so our decision depends on transportation." But although the Commission has reverted to alternate sites in the previous two presidential elections, those sites were not informed they would host a debate until a week before the debate took place. The University of California at Los Angeles hosted a debate on one week's notice in 1988 after the League of Women Voters declined to host the event. Brown said the attention attached to the debate is thoroughly predictable. "It's nice to have advance notice to take advantage of planning for the debate," Brown said. "But informing a site on short notice in no way diminishes its coverage." And Rogers said he is confident that the University would be ready if the Commission "asked us to host the debate at the last minute." "We put together last fall's rally basically overnight," Rogers explained. And he remained optimistic that Penn students would have the opportunity to prove that they could pull it together once again. "We're not out of this yet," Rogers said. "It's ultimately up to the candidates as to where the actual debate will take place."