Politically plugged-in

Students and spectators lined the walls and doorway of the crowded Parkway North room in Smith Memorial Student Union to watch the student body’s presentation of the national vice-presidential debate broadcast.

The event, held Thursday night in the Parkway North room of SMSU, was designed to increase voter registration on campus, said Virginia Vickery, university affairs director for the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU). Vickery called the event a great success.

“We were expecting about 40 people, so this has exceeded our expectations,” Vickery said.

ASPSU is part of a statewide student voter coalition designed to get students across the state to register for the upcoming presidential elections. Each participating university has a number of students to register, Vickery said.

With the deadline for new voter registration just shy of two weeks away, 1,500 out of a projected 6,000 new voters have registered, she said.

Vickery also said ASPSU wanted to bring the debates to the students not just to educate people, but also to increase students’ ability to watch the broadcast. The idea came from Vickery and other ASPSU members cramming into her apartment to watch last week’s presidential debate broadcast between Barack Obama and John McCain.

“A lot of people didn’t have TVs,” Vickery said, referring to friends who watched the presidential debate with her. “We wanted to provide a venue for people who didn’t otherwise have access.”

Throughout the debate, a few people filed in and out of the room, and a local television camera crew filmed the scene.Aside from the occasional laugh at vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s expense from a largely liberal-leaning audience, students remained quiet, listening intently to the progress of last night’s debate between Palin and Joe Biden, vice-presidential candidate for Barack Obama.

“We’re trying to get people aware. This is an awareness factor,” said Erin Likins, a new volunteer with ASPSU. “Just for people to be able to access [this], that is the first step to creating change.”

Vickery said that with the success of the last night’s event, ASPSU is going to host the remaining two presidential debates in the coming weeks.

“We want to help engage students in the political process that might not otherwise make the time,” she said.

What students think:

“I think it’s pretty cool. They’re getting both sides out there, and that’s a good thing.”-Jason Fullman, 22

“I thought I was going to miss it, since I had to be on campus.”-Anne Tyler, senior auditor

“I think it’s great. Last spring I went to all of them [ASPSU hosting the Democratic primary debates].”-Matt Devincenzi, advertising and marketing major

“I think it’s really great, because I didn’t have anywhere else to watch it. I was going to go to a bar or something.”-Lee Scharich, political science major

“It’s great, especially for the freshmen. It’s a good way for them to see how many other people on campus are interested.”-Safa Ghnaim, French major