IU not selected to host a presidential debate next year

The presidential debates next year will not be held at IU, though the University was considered to host an event, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced last week.\nIU and the City of Bloomington submitted a proposal to bring one of the debates to Bloomington during the spring semester. The Commission toured IU in July and approved the University as a potential host.\nUniversities in Tennessee, Mississippi and New York were selected instead. Bloomington was not chosen as a back-up site for the events either.\nThe Commission chose Belmont University, Hofstra University and the University of Mississippi to host the three presidential debates next year, while Washington University in St. Louis will host a vice-presidential debate.\n“While we are disappointed, we know that the extensive effort that went into our proposal to host one of the debates was not wasted,” IU President Michael McRobbie said in a news release. “This was a tremendous learning experience for our students, who took the lead in developing and carrying out this initiative.”\nStudent leaders, including former IU Student Association President Betsy Henke, led an effort last spring to bring the debates to IU. University and city officials, including McRobbie and Mayor Mark Kruzan, supported the effort as well.\n“What I was most pleased with was that it started with a student initiative and the whole campus bought into it,” said Bruce Jacobs, a leading administrative voice for the proposal and IU vice chancellor for auxiliary services and programs.\nBut despite continued optimism by IUSA leaders that Bloomington could be selected as a host city for the event, others speculated IU would not be chosen because Indiana has not typically been classified as a swing state.\n“We had submitted a competitive bid,” said Jeff Fraser, IUSA debate director. “Apparently something was not up to par.”\nNot so, said Janet Brown, executive director for the Commission. While she expressed appreciation for IU’s proposal, she said a state’s political leanings did not play into selecting debate venues.\n“The unfortunate part of this business is in many years you have more good sites than debates,” Brown said.\nLast Monday’s announcement marks the end of what has been a months-long joint effort by IU and Bloomington to help get the University selected for a debate. Prior to the announcement, organizers lauded the potential debate as one of the biggest events that would ever to occur at IU.