Centre College Debate News

Fact Sheet #1: The Debate Series

Centre College has been chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates to host the only vice presidential debate of the 2000 presidential campaign. The commission also named three sites that will host presidential debates. The complete list of debate dates and sites:

Oct. 3 John F. Kennedy Library and U.-Mass., Boston, Mass.
Oct. 5 Centre College, Danville, Ky.
Oct. 11 Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, N.C.
Oct. 17 Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

Each debate will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time and run for 90 minutes. The entire debate series will be broadcast over national television, and arrangements in each debate hall will be designed to meet television production requirements. The size of the live audience will be restricted, and all tickets and press credentials will be controlled by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The debate at Centre will take place in the college's Norton Center for the Arts, an 85,000 square-foot facility that mounts a major performing arts series each year. The question/answer format will be determined by the Commission.

Centre and the other three debate sites were chosen on the basis of a rigorous application and review process. Centre's original application was submitted in June, 1999, and the college learned in mid-October that it was one of 12 finalists to become a host site. The final selection of debate sites was announced Jan. 6 in Washington by the Commission.

The Commission on Presidential Debates previously produced presidential and vice presidential debates in 1988, 1992 and 1996. Centre President John Roush assisted with the 1992 debate (Bush-Clinton-Perot) at the University of Richmond, where he was serving as vice president. He has been president of Centre since July 1, 1998.

Centre was founded in 1819 and currently is cited by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 50 liberal arts colleges in the United States. The college has a 1:11 faculty:student ratio and maintains residential international study sites in England, France, and Latin America. The quality of the Centre experience is affirmed by alumni, who have registered the highest rate of alumni giving in the nation for 12 of the last 14 years.

Last updated: Jan. 7, 2000