Centre News

Assistant Professor of Government Benjamin Knoll (above,
right) was recently a featured commentator on a HuffPost Live
chat about the upcoming general election debates. Knoll talked
to host and Huffington Post journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (left)
along with other participants.

Assistant Professor of Government Benjamin Knoll was recently a featured guest on HuffPost Live, the streaming video network of news aggregate the Huffington Post. The session focused on presidential and vice presidential debates, their overall importance to elections and the role moderators play. To watch the live discussion, click here.

HuffPost Live was unveiled on Aug. 12, making the chat Knoll participated in among its first. The video network is intended to act as a way for members of the Huffington Post community to come together and discuss issues. Chats are hosted live daily throughout the workweek on Google Hangout.

Knoll was one of five guests on the live chat, hosted by Huffington Post columnist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin. Journalist, news anchor and author Carole Simpson was also part of the chat. Simpson became the first woman and first minority to moderate a presidential debate in 1992 at the town hall-style debate between George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. Simpson was the Emmy-winning anchor of the Sunday edition of ABC’s World News Tonight until 2003.

The other guests included three high school students—Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis—from Montclair, N.J. who began a petition for a female presidential debate moderator earlier this year. The petition was successful: CNN’s Candy Crowley was recently announced as the first female moderator of a presidential debate since Simpson earlier this week.

Knoll writes a political blog for the Huffington Post, and has published four entries thus far, including several about the upcoming Vice Presidential Debate at Centre. To read Knoll’s blog posts, click here.

For more information about the Vice Presidential Debate, visit Centre’s debate website.

Have comments, suggestions, or story ideas? E-mail elizabeth.trollinger@centre.edu with your feedback.

Centre College, founded in 1819 and chosen to host its second Vice Presidential Debate in 2012, is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges, at 42nd in the nation, and ranks 27th for best value among national liberal arts colleges. Forbes magazine ranks Centre 34th among all the nation’s colleges and universities and has named Centre in the top five among all institutions of higher education in the South for three years in a row. Centre is also ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News for its study abroad program. For more, click here.