About 150 University of Denver students packed into a campus auditorium last Friday night to watch the first general election debate between the main presidential candidates.
"I'm looking for answers," junior Cody McNutt said. As a finance major, he said he was especially interested in what the candidates had to say about the current economic crisis.
For junior Laura Jobin, spending her Friday night watching a political debate wasn't about a specific issue, but about becoming informed.
"I feel behind on the issues," she said, "but this is my first election and I want to be able to talk about it with people."
Organizers Dillon Doyle and John McMahon said they wanted the event not only to inform students, but also to unify and engage the campus.
Doyle, a sophomore, said it was a good campus event for a Friday night, and really helped students "get pumped" for the election.
The debate was put on by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates and hosted at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. Jim Lehrer, a PBS anchor, moderated it.
The debate broadcasted from a live stream on the CNN Web site to DU.
DU students spend Friday night with politics
The audience in Mississippi was instructed to be silent as Senators John McCain and Barack Obama debated the issues, but the DU audience clapped, booed and cheered throughout the 90-minute debate.
The candidates asked questions of each other and directly addressed each others' policies, causing the candidates to interrupt each other and override the moderator's time limits.
The format "was as informative as it was entertaining" Jobin said.
Although the candidates were able to engage each other, I didn't like the attacks they made toward one another, McNutt said.
DU organizers said they felt the debate and their event were both successes because they hadn't expected so many people. "To get 150 DU students on a Friday night to hang out and watch a debate is pretty significant" McMahon said.
Doyle and McMahon organized the event under DU's chapter of Students for Barack Obama. They stold Obama shirts, and a cardboard cutout of the Obama was on stage in the auditorium.
The organizers said that they had tried to make the event bipartisan by inviting the College Republicans, and wished that there had been a more balanced presence at the event.
When asked about this invitation, DU College Republicans Chairman Kevin Poyner said that the campus organization did not know of the event. "We would have liked to participate, but our officers were not aware of the event," he said.
The partisanship in the room, however, did not impact how the debate carried on during the broadcast.
"It makes me feel good that I go to a college where people care and that they would give up two hours on a Friday night to be informed," Jobin said.
There are three more official presidential and vice-presidential debates in the following weeks. Doyle said that all three debates will be broadcast on campus and sponsored by various campus organizations.
The next debate-viewing party will be hosted Thursday evening at The Pub, the campus restaurant. The vice-presidential candidates, Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden will debate.
The candidates asked questions of each other and directly addressed each others' policies, causing the candidates to interrupt each other and override the moderator's time limits.
The format "was as informative as it was entertaining" Jobin said.
Although the candidates were able to engage each other, I didn't like the attacks they made toward one another, McNutt said.
DU organizers said they felt the debate and their event were both successes because they hadn't expected so many people. "To get 150 DU students on a Friday night to hang out and watch a debate is pretty significant" McMahon said.
Doyle and McMahon organized the event under DU's chapter of Students for Barack Obama. They stold Obama shirts, and a cardboard cutout of the Obama was on stage in the auditorium.
The organizers said that they had tried to make the event bipartisan by inviting the College Republicans, and wished that there had been a more balanced presence at the event.
When asked about this invitation, DU College Republicans Chairman Kevin Poyner said that the campus organization did not know of the event. "We would have liked to participate, but our officers were not aware of the event," he said.
The partisanship in the room, however, did not impact how the debate carried on during the broadcast.
"It makes me feel good that I go to a college where people care and that they would give up two hours on a Friday night to be informed," Jobin said.
There are three more official presidential and vice-presidential debates in the following weeks. Doyle said that all three debates will be broadcast on campus and sponsored by various campus organizations.
The next debate-viewing party will be hosted Thursday evening at The Pub, the campus restaurant. The vice-presidential candidates, Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden will debate.
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