A little more than two months ago, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that Belmont's Curb Event Center would host the Oct. 7, 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate. Since that announcement, several university teams have been formed that include students, faculty, staff and community representatives to focus on everything from logistics and programming to marketing/communication and community involvement.

There is plenty to be excited about. Naturally, one of our top priorities at Belmont University is to provide an academically challenging education to our students. Every college, school, department and class will be participating in some fashion in a celebration this coming year of the American political system, all based around themes of freedom, Presidential elections and the American identity. Soon, we will begin to announce a superb line-up of speakers and special event programming that will enable us all—students, faculty, staff and the local community—to engage in the history of our political system and to learn more about the democratic process. This will be a comprehensive experience for Belmont University, with every academic discipline involved in the dialogue.

Of course, an event of this size and intensity will require some flexibility by our campus. In order to ensure the least amount of disruption to our class schedules and instruction time, senior leadership has made an alteration to the academic calendar for the fall semester. Fall Break—originally scheduled for Thurs, Oct. 16-Fri., Oct. 17—will be moved to Mon., Oct. 6-Wed., Oct. 8, the days around the Town Hall Debate. This change was deemed necessary because of the spaces required for the event. No classes will be held during these three days, with the exception of Wednesday evening classes which will be held as scheduled. We are in the process of considering how we will make up the extra MWF class that will be lost due to the extension of Fall Break to three days. Over the next few weeks, we will solicit input regarding possible solutions to that issue.

We recognize that there are many questions regarding the logistics of the Town Hall Presidential Debate. We do not have answers to many of those questions and may not have additional information for some time. As you might imagine, security considerations will dictate what we know, and therefore what we can share. We certainly want this debate to be safe and secure for these candidates, one of whom will be our next President. We would ask the entire Belmont community to exercise as much patience as possible as we await the arrival of what will surely be the Super Bowl of American politics.

You may find additional information at these sites: http://forum.belmont.edu/umac/archives/008300.html (link includes an overview of the press conference announcement from last fall as well as a student-produced video of the event) and the Commission on Presidential Debates at www.debates.org. As we move forward with planning and programming, we encourage your input and suggestions at debate08@mail.belmont.edu. In addition, the President’s office is scheduling an “FAQ Session” for faculty and staff as well as an “Ask Dr. Fisher” session for Belmont students for this semester. These sessions will provide the community the opportunity to ask questions about this process, as well as to learn more about other Belmont University concerns you may have.

Sincerely,
Dr. Dan McAlexander
Provost