On Oct. 1, the Center for Student Engagement (CSE) partnered with the Kappa Mu chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity to host a vice presidential debate watch party featuring Tim Walz and JD Vance. The event took place in rooms 62/63 of the Student Union Building.
“Students need to be educated,” said Kappa Mu Chapter Vice President Derek Rodriguez. “You should not just follow what you see on the internet and think that you know everything you need to know about either candidate. You need to watch the debate and make a decision for yourself.”
“Knowing who the vice presidential candidates are is almost as important as knowing who’s running for president,” Rodriguez added. “You’ve got to know who their backup will be.”
This is the second time this election season that the CSE has collaborated with the fraternity.On Sept. 10, they also held a watch party for the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Both events were met with a high student turnout.
Rodriguez thanked Leslie Gutierrez-Saldana, the community and civic engagement coordinator of the CSE, who he said spearheaded the first debate watch party with the presidential candidates.
Many of the same topics from last month’s debate were discussed in the vice presidential face-off with additional talking points, such as Hurricane Helene and what both men view as their respective leadership qualities. Walz and Vance generally performed in a more polite manner than Harris and Trump. During several moments, the vice presidential candidates agreed on issues and in one case, Vance extended his sympathies to Walz when the latter spoke of his 17-year-old son witnessing a shooting at a community center.
Despite a strong performance from both men, many students who attended the debate did not feel their opinions on either vice president candidate had dramatically changed.
“I would consider myself to be very politically involved, so I knew a lot about both of their policies beforehand,” said first-year women’s, gender and sexuality studies major Bella Mettler.
“Honestly, this debate has made me like Tim Walz more, but Vance is doing better than I thought he would,” she said. Mettler appreciated that Walz brought up women’s names and their stories during the candidates’ statements on abortion, which she thinks “shows how personable he is.”
First-year English major Carolina Cuello said, “I knew their stances on abortion and who they were running with, but not much else.”
There were several key moments during the debate. During the discussion on immigration, specifically Trump’s false claims of Haitian migrant workers “eating pets” in Springfield, Ohio. Vance repeatedly interrupted the debate moderators after his two minutes to speak were up.
Other key moments include Walz falsely stating he went to China in the summer of 1989, and that he “misspoke” in previous claims that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests. Before the candidates’ closing remarks, Vance refused to answer whether Trump lost the 2020 election.
The Oct. 1 debate took place just 36 days before the presidential election. You can find out if you are registered to vote by going to https://www.vote.org/.
