2008 Presidential Debate | The University of Mississippi

May 1, 2008

Fall Semester Schedule, Special Events Planned Around Sept. 26 Presidential Debate

OXFORD, Miss. – Plans for the fall semester at the University of Mississippi are particularly exciting this year as faculty, staff and students prepare for one of the greatest opportunities in the university's 160-year history – hosting a presidential debate.

With the international spotlight swinging to the Oxford campus Sept. 26 for this headline election-year event, the debate and the election process are being incorporated into everything from course curricula and special programs for students to educational forums, symposiums and lectures geared for the general public.

Not surprisingly, the university's political science faculty is playing a lead role in this quest.

"The debate presents a teachable moment for our faculty and students," said Richard Forgette, chair and professor of political science. "Every political science faculty member will be incorporating the event in some way into their fall classes."

An honors course on public policy analysis, for example, requires students to assess the greatest public policy challenges facing their generation in the mid-South. The students have focused on educational opportunity and hope to present their findings to the presidential candidates before the debate.

A general course on the 2008 election, POL 100, is open to anyone at the university. Each week different speakers are to relate their election expertise to the class. Courses on the U.S. presidency, voting and elections, and political parties also are being offered. "For new students, the fall semester would be a terrific time to take POL 101, Introduction to American Politics," Forgette said.

The presidential election is also the topic of courses in other less obviously related departments. The Department of Economics is offering a team-taught course on economic issues of the 2008 presidential election – many of which likely will shape the debate here as well. Course topics are to include strategic voting, social policy including health care and social security, immigration and labor, economic growth and recessions, energy and the environment.

"They're sort of coming to a head in a year that we have a presidential election," said Mark Van Boening, interim chair and associate professor of economics. "I do think students are going to be a little differently engaged."

Other courses planned for the fall include an engineering seminar on global warming taught by Wei-Yin Chen and "Writing the Presidential Debates," an English course on expository writing taught by Ben McClelland. Speech instructor Joann Edwards plans to focus her intercollegiate debating course this fall on Medicare reform.

While students dissect the presidential election in the classroom, the university also plans to offer programs that reach out to the larger community.

The Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics is taking advantage of the expertise of the more than 3,000 media representatives expected to descend on campus for the debate.

"It is a perfect convergence of what the Overby Center is all about," said Curtis Wilkie, Cook chair and associate professor of journalism. "It's journalism and politics writ large."

In the most high profile of those events, the Overby Center is hosting a Sept. 25 event featuring longtime NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, who Wilkie hopes will be joined by "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert. The duo is expected to discuss their experiences in past debates and what the nation can expect from this one.

The Overby Center also plans to host a symposium with the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation about the events that took place in Mississippi in the 1960s that changed American politics and is working to partner with the Croft Institute for International Studies on a panel of international journalists, focusing on their perceptions of the presidential race.

To bring historical perspective to the debate, the Department of History is bringing James Baughman, professor and director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to campus Sept. 11 to discuss the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960. Those debates represent a significant development in the role of television in presidential campaigns, said Joseph Ward, chair and associate professor of history.

"This event will help the audience appreciate the historical context for televised presidential debates," Ward said. "We now take for granted that such debates are standard features of presidential politics, but the lecture will remind us that this tradition was invented not long ago."

On Sept. 3, the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs hosts "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," a panel discussion on progress toward enhancing America's global competitiveness featuring Norm Augustine, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp.

The Department of Classics follows suit Sept. 9 with a lecture by Joy Connelly, a specialist in ancient political history from New York University, who is to speak on contemporary politics and classical rhetoric.

Meanwhile, Sept. 9-25, the Division of Outreach and Continuing Studies is hitting the road to spread word of the debate with traveling presidential debate lectures at high schools and community colleges throughout the state. On campus, the J.D. Williams Library presents "Hail to the Chief!" an exhibit featuring U.S. presidents and Mississippi's role in past elections. The exhibit opens Aug. 18 and remains on display throughout the fall.

"The whole world will focus for a few hours on Oxford next September," Forgette said.

For more information or updates on debate-related events and activities, click on "Calendar of Events", in the left sidebar.

(emily r. welly)

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