The 2012 Election:
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Category Archives: Debates
October 26, 2012, 3:54 pm
For Lynn U., Presidential Debate Was a Chance to Shine in National Spotlight
Lynn University was closed on Friday, as a precaution against Hurricane Sandy, which was barreling toward the region. But the campus in Boca Raton, Fla., was also recovering this week from a storm of its own making: hosting a presidential debate.
After months of intensive preparation and anticipation, the 90-minute debate on Monday came and went quickly, says Kevin M. Ross, the university’s president.
“The tens of thousands of people who came were here for about a day,” he says. “Within 24 hours of the event, everything was gone. The stage had been packed up and loaded on trucks.”
Since the Commission on Presidential Debates was formed, in 1988, colleges and universities have hosted nearly all of the presidential and vice-presidential debates between the two major parties. During that time, many large research institutions—the University of Miami, Arizona State University, the…
October 22, 2012, 8:43 pm
‘We’ve Never Heard of You, Either’
As hordes of reporters and politicians descended on Lynn University for Monday night’s debate, it seemed likely that at least a few of them quipped about the small private institution’s relative obscurity.
But the university, in Boca Raton, Fla., was ready with a feisty retort: “We’ve never heard of you, either.”
T-shirts quickly became one of the most popular aspects of the debate on the Boca Raton, Fla., campus. (Lynn U. photo by Helena Suba)
That was the message emblazoned on hundreds of official debate T-shirts that the university distributed to students over the past several days.
The idea for the slogan came from the university’s president, Kevin M. Ross.
“A lot of alums say to me that they wish our school were more widely known,” he said. “And I think it’s something that has bothered students…
October 17, 2012, 3:33 pm
Tracing the Evolution of Romney’s Position on Pell Grants
In the second presidential debate, on Tuesday at Hofstra University, in New York, the Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s statements in favor of increasing Pell Grants surprised some reporters. The New York Times’s Richard Pérez-Peña called Mr. Romney’s assertion that he wanted “to make sure we keep our Pell Grant program growing” a “new position for him.”
Mr. Romney’s previous remarks indicate that he has been moving gradually toward that position over the course of the campaign.
- During the Republican primaries, Mr. Romney was all but mute on higher-education issues. While his opponents made mention of higher education during the debates, Mr. Romney did not. His campaign Web site at the time did not mention Pell Grants.
- In the months that led up to his nomination, Mr. Romney commended Rep. Paul Ryan’s controversial budget plan, which Democrats have criticized…
October 17, 2012, 12:50 am
In Debate, Romney Voices Support for Expanding Pell Grant Program
In the second presidential debate, on Tuesday night, the Republican nominee Mitt Romney offered some of his most explicit support yet for the Pell Grant program, while President Obama touted several of his administration’s achievements that affect higher education.
The first question in the town hall-style debate came from 20-year-old Jeremy Epstein, a junior at Adelphi University. Addressing Mr. Romney, Mr. Epstein asked about his job prospects as a college student who will graduate in 2014. Mr. Romney responded by saying he would seek to make college more affordable and ensure that students like Mr. Epstein had jobs when they graduated.
“I want to make sure we keep our Pell Grant program growing,” he said. Mr. Romney also touted a merit scholarship he instituted as governor of Massachusetts; the scholarship waives tuition at the state’s public colleges for students who…
October 4, 2012, 1:20 am
In Debate, Obama and Romney Clash Over Who Would Do More for Education
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Obama wave at the start of Wednesday night’s debate at the U. of Denver (Reuters/Rick Wilking/Landov).
In the first presidential debate of this fall’s campaign, which focused on domestic policy, President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, sparred over their tax plans, the federal deficit, Wall Street regulation, and health care.
Throughout the 90-minute debate Wednesday evening at the University of Denver, both candidates mentioned education several times in relation to its role in resolving the nation’s economic problems, and they sometimes traded barbs over whose policies would actually invest in education.
Mr. Obama charged that Mr. Romney’s economic plan would offer tax breaks to the richest Americans. Such a plan, he said, “will no…
October 3, 2012, 1:42 pm
Tracking the Debate on Twitter: Southern Cal Tool Mines Political Sentiments in Real Time
Twenty-five thousands tweets per minute. That was roughly the volume of campaign-related Twitter messages posted during the height of the political conventions, according to researchers at the University of Southern California. Tonight’s presidential debate will unleash another Twitter tsunami.
So how do you make sense of it all?
A team of social scientists and computer scientists at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab has developed technology that attempts to automatically track the sentiments of political tweets. The service, available here, displays the relative number of “positive” and “negative” tweets about each candidate, the overall volume of tweets pertaining to each campaign, and a scrolling list of the most positive and negative tweets.
The promise is that machines will mine Twitter to quickly detect changes in campaigns, before anyone has time to do polling and analysis…
October 2, 2012, 6:38 pm
In U.S. Senate Contest in Mass., Candidate’s Academic Post Is an Issue
Titles in academe can be a tricky issue, raising a host of complicated questions about identity, status, and etiquette.
But in one of the most closely watched Senate races this election season, the question of how to refer to a candidate who is also an academic is inherently a political one.
Elizabeth Warren (Photo by David Shankbone via Flickr/CC)
Elizabeth Warren, a professor at Harvard Law School who is running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, was asked at a debate on Tuesday night whether she was bothered by the practice of her opponent—Scott Brown, the Republican incumbent—of referring to her by her academic title.
“He always calls you ‘Professor Warren,’” said David Gregory, the NBC News journalist who moderated the debate. “Do you think he’s needling you, trying to cast you as an elitist …
August 31, 2012, 3:26 pm
Lynn U. Rolls Out Curriculum Devoted to U.S. Presidency and Debates
On October 22, Lynn University will welcome President Obama and the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, to its campus, in Boca Raton, Fla., for their third and final presidential debate. By then, Lynn’s 1,600 students should be well prepared for the rhetorical battle, thanks to 80 classes related to the presidency and political debates that the private, nonprofit university added to its catalog for the fall semester.
Shortly after the college learned last fall that it had won the right to host one of the presidential debates, Gregg C. Cox, vice president for academic affairs, says he “immediately went to the faculty and said, ‘Here’s an opportunity. We’ve got something right here on our campus that will help ignite some excitement in our students.’”
Mr. Cox asked the faculty to examine existing courses and seek to tailor the material in ways that would complement the…
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