Eagle News

 By: Dustin Kapper and Melanie Larsen

Posted: 10/29/08

Students are engaging in political dialogue at FGCU. The American Democracy Project and Take the Vote teamed together to throw "THE DEBATE Series." It consisted of two politically charged evenings filled with debate, discussion, questions and answers having to do with topics that concern students.

On Oct. 21, the first debate took place. Tuesday night the student Union ballroom filled up with eager listeners, awaiting the representative voices of the 2008 election.

The Democratic and Republican parties were each represented by 3 students in the debate. The debaters well informed of their respective topic. The topics of debate included foreign policy, education and civil liberties.

Representing Sen. McCain, Joe Cox mentioned the benefits of a slower exit from of American troops, and consequently a more stable Middle East.

On Sen. Obama's side, Casey Delehanty rebutted noting the current death toll is approaching 4,000 lives and claiming the government had persuaded initial support of the war through "scare tactics."

After the time for arguments and rebuttals elapsed a "fact check" conducted through some rapid internet research came up with subtle distinctions in figures on the McCain side of the argument.

Education was a topic that hit home for FGCU students and had a lively discussion. The Republican representatives claimed the best action includes allowing a family to change schools when they feel one is not helping there child.

The Democratic distinction involved more funding to charter schools, which will increase the competition in an educational environment. Overall, this category seemed to meet the most common ground in the debate, and each side emphasized the importance of quality teachers.

The civil liberties debate was torn into two sides, pro-choice and pro-life. The topic of abortion was argued vehemently by each side, and again boiled down to an issue of morality. A major theme encircling this argument was the question of whether or not the choice of abortion was a constitutional right. The fact check reported that it was not.

Trying to avoid the escalating moral standoff moderator opened floor for questions where Amendment 2's gay marriage rights was argued with less hostility.

Between each topic, the moderator, Caroline Decaire of Take the Vote, opened the floor for questions. In most cases, audience members used this time as ploy for voicing their opinions on the topic.

"If it weren't for Joe Cox, who represented John McCain, the debate would have not been nearly as successful," said Jeb Miners, a junior majoring in philosophy, in a post-debate interview. "Joe wrestled the Obama supporters into the ground."

"It was a successful effort in a continued support to show (the students) something substantial," said Ron Angerer who helped set up the debate.

The second debate was held the following night and was presented in a slightly different format.

This event was called the "Presidential Candidates Issues Forum" and it also took place in the ballroom.

The debaters have been preparing all semester for the day of the debate. Their goal was to be informative and not use any mudslinging that detracted from the real issues. All of the debaters were students from Dr. Maria F. Roca's Senior Seminar Class. They argued Obama and McCain's views on several different topics: healthcare, economy, defense and environment.

Doors opened at 7 p.m., seating filled up fast with over 125 student and visitor attendees. Observers were asked to fill out ballots as they entered, which were then tallied up before the start of the event.

After the attendees took their seat they were given a second ballot to fill out at the end of the presentation. This way viewers and debaters could see the influence, persuasion and overall outcome the forum had (see side bar for results).

Roca, professor for the department of communication and philosophy, acknowledged that she and her students were trying to do something "a little bit different" by replacing the word "debate" on the programs with the word "forum" in order to "show … what good political representation should look like."

The students were given 8-minute time limits to persuade the policy statement for their candidate, which were then followed by rebuttals by different students from each party.

WINK News personality Chris Cifatte was the guest forum moderator at the affair. Cifatte asked questions in between the policies. Some of the students seemed slightly nervous under the pressure of the news anchor, but after gaining their composure, they all seemed to finish strong.

"They answered the questions that very often the candidates don't answer, so you really got some good information," Cifatte said. "What surprised me a little bit was how good the questions were, especially from the students - It would have been nice to probably have more time, because there are just so many issues out there."

Jeff Healey, a senior majoring in communications, and debater for the John McCain Foreign Policy Team said he wasn't nervous at all to be on stage speaking, because he's used to be being under pressure and speaking in front of a large group of people through his job as an announcer for FGCU's Hockey Team.

Although Healey defended McCain in the Forum he said he "was still a little bit undecided" on who he should vote for. He had to do research on both candidates for the event in order to know what to say and what the other side was going to say in the debate.

"It's always important to know what you stand for and to know what you stand against," Healey said. The event made him "better well versed" and he now has a "better understanding in general of the election" because of it.

Alexander Trent, a junior majoring in political science and representative for The American Democracy Project said, that he was very impressed with how the event went. "It was really informative ... I think it went perfectly."

The American Democracy Project and Take the Vote hoped that the events informed students on the real issues so they can be better prepared when they go to vote on Nov. 4.

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