The Michigan Times

UM-Flint’s American Democracy Project is to help host a series of debate watches this September and October, preceding the presidential elections. Students, faculty, staff and the community are invited to the Michigan Rooms, where the televised debates will be shown and a group discussion will take place after.

"The benefit of watching in a group is that other people’s mindsets become available to you," said ADP faculty fellow and associate professor of communication and visual arts, Christine Waters.

"It’s really meant to be a public open-forum discussion and really getting students and community members to think about not only what’s important to them but what’s important to communities and what’s important to the world," said Renee Zientek, co-chair of the ADP and assistant vice chancellor of institutional advancement.

The first presidential debate, between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, will be held Sept. 26 at 9 p.m. It is scheduled to last 90 minutes, and will focus on foreign policy and national security issues.

The vice presidential debate, featuring Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin, and the other two presidential debates will be held throughout October and will be covered on UM-Flint’s campus as well.

Leading the post-debate discussion will be either one of the ADP’s faculty fellows or a past student scholar.

"We find that on college campuses it is a great activity, particularly bringing together very diverse groups," said Provost Jack Kay, also a co-chair of the ADP.

A debate watch party in McKinnon Plaza is planned to precede the first debate watch.

"We haven’t confirmed everything yet, but there will be some form of entertainment," Zientek said.

Ideas such as a band or spoken word artist have been bounced around for the pre-debate watch entertainment. There will also be pizza and giveaways at the party.

"At a minimum what we’ll do is invite and encourage our students to come to the Michigan Rooms and collectively watch the first debate together," Waters said.

The upcoming debate watch isn’t the first of its kind at UM-Flint. Two years ago, the University hosted a gubernatorial debate, and a Flint mayoral debate was held last year.

The debate watches will be covered by WNEM-TV 5.

"They’re in partnership with University Relations. They’ve decided to be part of covering students’ opinions and thoughts and broadcasting out what the discussions are after those debates," Zientek said.

Waters said that while camera crews would be there, students’ privacy would also be respected.

"What we’re talking about doing is dividing away one part of the Michigan Rooms as a media-free area, so if there are people who want to participate in the process but don’t want to be on the evening news or the news the next morning we will respect that as well," she said.

The ADP also plans to participate in Constitution Day on Sept. 17 by hosting a voice wall on which students can write their political opinions and answer questions in a discreet, open-forum sort of way.

The group will also soon be picking its next ADP scholar. Anyone interested in becoming a student scholar or joining ADP should contact Renee Zientek at (810) 767-7182 or by e-mail at rzientek@umflint.edu.