Penn State Behrend Hosts Final DebateWatch
College is recognized voter education partner
The Communication program at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will host its third and final DebateWatch on Wednesday, October 15, during the presidential debate. The DebateWatch program will begin at 9 p.m. in Bruno’s Café, located on the second floor of Reed Union Building.
The presidential debate will be aired on big-screen televisions in Bruno’s and followed by brief discussions. The feedback from those discussions will be sent to the national Commission on Presidential Debates. DebateWatch is open to Penn State Behrend students, faculty and staff as well as the public.
Penn State Behrend is one of the Commission on Presidential Debates’ 63 voter education partners, including Hofstra University—the site of this final debate. A combined total of more than 500 people—250 for the first debate on September 26 and more than 300 for the second—attended Penn State Behrend’s first two DebateWatch programs.
In an effort to further its goal of promoting informed and engaged citizenry, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) established voter education partnerships with a diverse group of organizations and associations. Many of the CPD’s voter education partners are sponsoring or otherwise promoting DebateWatches. For a list of CPD’s 2008 voter education partners, visit www.debates.org/pages/voteredpartners.html.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is a comprehensive residential college offering 34 baccalaureate, six associate, four pre-professional and two graduate degree programs with 22 minors to more than 4,600 students. Focused on providing a student-centered environment, Penn State Behrend connects its students to a major research and land-grant institution on a campus enriched by more than 110 clubs and organizations, 21 NCAA varsity teams and 19 intramural sports.
Penn State Behrend is named in recognition of a donation by Mary Behrend, widow of Ernst Behrend, who founded the Hammermill Paper Co. in Erie in 1898. The Behrend family lived on the 400-acre Glenhill Farm, which is the core of the Penn State Behrend campus today. For more information, visit behrend.psu.edu.