By Dr. Julie Welker | The Student Speaker Bureau speech and debate team will host debate watch and dialogue sessions for the presidential debates Sept. 29 at 8:30 p.m., Oct. 1 at 8 p.m., and Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. The events will take place in the Bullion Suites and Winebrenner Science Hall, and are open to students, faculty, and staff.
The DebateWatch Initiative encourages individuals to watch a debate, turn off the television immediately after, and discuss what they’ve learned. The goal of the program is to engage with other citizens in civil dialogue to discuss what they gained from watching the debate.
“This is a great opportunity to engage with others by sharing and listening rather than arguing,” said Dr. Julie Welker, chair of the department of communication and coach of the speech and debate team.
The DebateWatch program was created by the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1996 as a voter education and civic engagement program. The 2020 CPD DebateWatch participants include nearly 200 schools and organizations across 45 states and 3 countries.
After the debate, participants will be able to engage in group discussions. The post-debate discussions will be guided by student moderators from SSB and will focus on what participants learned.
Devin Schurman, sophomore strategic communication, jurisprudence, and Academy major said that the debates are important for students to watch so they will be informed voters.
“A lot of times, we only get our information about the candidates from news sources but this will be a great time to actually hear what the candidates stand for from their own mouths,” Schurman said.
Welker added that the discussion questions are meant to entice student understanding of the debate process, concepts discussed in the debate, and the candidates.
“We do not want to enter into debate about the issues themselves, rather develop an understanding of the importance of presidential debates,” said Welker.
The DebateWatch events at HPU will all be in held in person, participants will social distance and wear masks during the event.
“We will also have presidential trivia with awards, snacks, and a Kahoot game over the candidates,” added Welker.