About 150 students filled the Coleman Auditorium Tuesday to watch the second presidential debate and how the issues relate to them.

Marita Gronnvoll, a communication studies professor, worked with the communication studies department to organize the event, but said it was not an original idea to hold this type of forum.

“We did this type of thing in the 2000s but it was much smaller,” Gronnvoll said. “It is a national thing that many schools do; we didn’t come up with this idea on our own.”

At the beginning of the event, Gronnvoll passed out a sheet with six questions for participants to think about as the debate went on.

“We are not trying to pick a winner, but familiarize students with the issues,” she said. “This debate is about a combination of foreign policy and domestic policy, so I hope students pay attention to how the candidates act as opposed to the last debate and how they interact with the audience.”

Before the discussion, participants watched the presidential debate through CNN’s website.

At the halfway point through the debate, the stream of the debate was continuously slow, so Gronnvoll switched to YouTube.

“We chose CNN because they are co-sponsoring the debate and thought they would have more bandwidth,” Gronnvoll said. “Obviously, we were wrong, as more people log on, the slower it gets, and it’s frustrating.”

Whitney Pledger, a sophomore communication studies major, said she sees herself as a liberal, but not as Democrat.

“I see flaws in both parties, so I go with what I think about the issues not a particular party,” Pledger said. “I come from a conservative mother and a liberal father, so I feel like I have insight from both sides.”

Pledger said she attended the event to see what her peers think about the issues, not just the candidates.

“I’ve watched the past few debates by myself, I’m big on being an informed citizen,” Pledger said. “Now that I am in college, I think it is more important than ever, these are the issues that will affect me and my future children someday.”

While some participants were not partisan, both the EIU College Democrats and EIU College Republicans had representatives at the event and helped lead the discussion.

Tommy Zei, a member of the EIU College Democrats and a senior political science major, said he was interested to see how the debate would go but said his major goal within the event was to educate.

“Early voting has already started but I want to clarify issues and help students understand exactly what the candidates are talking about,” Zei said.

Nick Tieman, the president of the EIU College Republicans and a junior accounting major, said politics is something he has always been passionate about and that it is important for student to be informed.

“We were invited and wanted to come help educate and share out views,” Tieman said.

The next presidential debate will take place Oct. 22.

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].