Calm, organized debate shares unbiased views

Members of the College Republicans and UNC Young Democrats intently watched as professors discussed issues of the presidential election in a debate Monday in Gerrard Hall.

The debate, organized by both student groups, fostered talks by professors from UNC and Duke University on foreign and domestic policy.

Bret Barden, a senior public policy and political science major and activism director of the Young Democrats, said the debate was held to "get information out to the students."

The professors discussed and debated the candidates' foreign policy views on the Iraq, terrorism, energy and other issues.

Timothy McKeown, a UNC political science professor, was chosen by the Young Democrats to argue for Sen. John Kerry's campaign.

The College Republicans could not find a UNC professor to represent Bush's administration, so Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University, participated in the debate.

"I thought it was a sad commentary on higher education," Feaver said, disappointed that no UNC professors offered to represent Republican issues.

Although it was originally planned that two professors would debate domestic policy, a Republican representative was not present, so UNC economic Professor Ralph Byrns side-stepped from left to right and debated the economic policies of both candidates.

Byrns debated the candidates' issues on trade, health care, Social Security and other domestic issues relevant to the election.

Byrns said an overall issue of the election is the budget deficit.

"We need to look at how are we going to close the deficit," he said.

Byrns added that in the end, either candidate will have to raise taxes at least once during the next term.

A main point that Feaver stressed throughout the debate was the similarity of the Bush and Kerry campaigns.

"Both candidates propose remarkably similar agendas," Feaver said of their policies on the war in Iraq. "The real question is who will be able to implement them."

McKeown repeatedly criticized the Bush administration's foreign policy decisions for being too coercive.

"There are people making foreign policy decisions in this administration that are just plain scary," Feaver said. 'There's a lot more to foreign policy than coercive diplomacy."

The participants, organizers and many students in attendance said that, overall, the debate went well.

"I was surprised and pleased at the respectful level of discourse," said Jordan Selleck, chairman of the College Republicans. "I feel like things were really talked about."

Although Byrns had the difficult task of debating and defending Democratic and Republican economic policies, he said that it went well. But he said he doubts whether the debate actually influenced students' decisions.

"I'm willing to bet you that not one single person changed their vote," he said.

Liz Carter, an undecided freshman and member of the UNC Young Democrats, said she enjoyed the debate because it was calm, organized and included knowledgeable professors.

"I hadn't seen anywhere professors represent different issues," Carter said. "These views were probably the least biased views."

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.