By: RACHEL NUNER
Staff Writer
rnuner@iusb.edu
Mayor of South Bend Pete Buttigieg and Republican opponent Kelly Jones will be featured in a mayoral debate from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6th in the Wiekamp Hall Auditorium, room 1001.
Questions from students and community members will be accepted on notecards and/or can be e-mailed to American Democracy Project intern Rachel Santos at rjsantos@iusb.edu.
There are three separate organizations sponsoring the event, IUSB’s political science club, South Bend’s League of Women Voters and the American Democracy Project. Each of the sponsors’ representatives will have precedent opportunity to submit questions at the debate.
IUSB political science professor, Dr. Elizabeth Bennion, is responsible for moderating the debate. She has been part of the political science department at IUSB since 1999 and is the Acting Chair of the department, as well as the director of the American Democracy Project.
Bennion received a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Smith College, a master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin.
IUSB has hosted multiple political events over the past few years. “We have become the center of political activity,” said Bennion.
“The community really trusts our students and faculty to provide a fair, well-structured debate,” she said.
Bennion’s political science students are expected to attend the event and have the opportunity to receive extra credit for their participation.
“It’s extremely important for our students to be knowledgeable about local politics because it directly affects their lives in multiple ways,” Bennion said.
Rachel Santos, Student Government Association senator and intern for the American Democracy Project, will be at the debate and is partially responsible for organizing the crowd’s questions. Santos is a political science major and will be graduating in spring of 2016.
“Local government is something that has a major impact on our [students] lives,” she said, “So we hope to see a lot of students in the crowd.”
The debate is open to the public.
Anyone with questions regarding the debate can email Dr. Elizabeth Bennion at ebennion@iusb.edu or Rachel Santos at rjsantos@iusb.edu.
