Correction:  In Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Eastern News, Tommy Zei was misidentified. Zei is a member of the EIU College Democrats. The News regrets the error.

As the last of the presidential debates hit the airwaves Monday, students across campus got a last official look at how their presidential candidates match up against each other.

The topic of Monday’s debate was foreign policy, a subject that professors and students said will have a direct effect on college students.

Richard Wandling, the chairman of the political science department, said the debates are unusually important in this year’s election.

“The average voter is paying a lot more attention to the debates this year than in previous presidential years,” he said. “There’s obviously some uncertainty among a large population of voters, and we have those voters looking for some cues that might help them to decide.”

Wandling said Monday’s debate on foreign policy was especially important because the U.S. has been involved in a couple different military conflicts for many years.

“We should be involved because the military takes a significant share of our budget (as a country),” he said. “Students should be involved because we live in an increasingly globalized world in which actions in other parts of the world have significant implications for domestic politics.”

Kevin Anderson, an assistant professor of political science, said many people are not as “tuned in” to details, and the debates have been ways for voters to get the answers they need.

“Good debates reveal policy positions,” he said. “They determine what candidates will plan to do if they win.”

Anderson said foreign policy has a direct effect on everything else in the U.S.

“We tend to think of foreign policy strictly in terms of military activities and strategic decisions the president makes about where to send troops, but foreign policy deals with far greater issues,” he said.

Anderson said issues such as trade and products the U.S. gets from countries like China are big factors in foreign policy as well as oil prices that directly affect gas prices here.

“On the surface, it may seem like these issues are not directly relevant, but inevitably, there’s the spillover effect,” he said. “How we deal with the rest of the world has an impact on the way we live.”

Anderson said the U.S. cannot ignore the issues of the rest of the world.

Tommy Zei, a member of the EIU College Democrats, said the debates continue to play a crucial role in the student’s selection of a presidential candidate.

“The debates help highlight the differences between each candidate,” he said. “They really are a great way to educate voters on what the candidates stand for.”

Zei said students should care about foreign policy because international affairs affect U.S. economy.

“If a student is studying chemistry, and for some reason or another a bunch of chemical jobs get shipped overseas, they’ll be out of luck,” he said. “Foreign policy is crucial for understanding economic and domestic policies as well.”

Nick Tieman, the president of the EIU College Republicans, said watching the debates can help get students involved in politics because he has heard of many students who simply do not care about the election or politics at all.

“It’s important to know the viewpoints of both candidates,” he said.

Tieman said he thinks foreign policy has an effect on him as a student because he cares about issues such as national security and diplomacy around the world.

“Kids need to know issues that are going on all around the world and not just issues here in the United States,” he said. “Whether people like it or not, the United States is involved in many worldwide issues.”

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].