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Presidential debate a hot topic at Hofstra University

BY KARLA SCHUSTER | karla.schuster@newsday.com

October 14, 2008

Wonder what Harriet Tubman might say about Barack Obama running for president? Or how Susan B. Anthony would feel about Hillary Clinton's candidacy?

Go ahead, ask them.

For the next two days, Hofstra University students will perform costumed re-enactments of pivotal issues and events in history and presidential politics - including taking questions in character. It is one of the more unusual examples of how the school's role as host of tomorrow's third and final presidential debate has transformed campus life and students' experiences.

From the student center to the South Campus quads, the debate was topic number one, as the sound of network crews erecting sets drowned out conversation and reporters from news outlets as far away as France buttonholed students in the cafeteria.

Student volunteers doling out media credentials dished about which boldface names would come to pick up their badges personally. "I hope Maria Menounos shows up," one girl said of the " Access Hollywood" reporter. "She has great hair."

Others, such as junior Ashley Kowal, 20, a marketing major from New Jersey, didn't much care about the star factor. "I'm just excited about this whole experience," she said. "It doesn't matter if I meet the candidates - just being part of this atmosphere is enough."

Under tents on South Campus and at the Adams Playhouse, that atmosphere will include student and professional performers staging a spirited discussion between abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln about slavery and the Civil War; delivering a speech as former congresswoman Shirley Chisolm when she ran for president in 1972; or telling the remarkable story of Henry "Box" Brown's escape from slavery by mailing himself in a box from Richmond, Va., to Philadelphia.

"It's wonderful when what's happening in the classroom speaks to what is happening in the world," said Lisa Merrill, a speech communications professor who helped organize the re-enactments, which were underwritten in part with a grant from the Motorola Foundation.

The students studied the stories and speeches of their characters for months, writing their own scripts based on historical documents and texts.

"The speech I give as Shirley Chisolm has so many parallels to what Barack Obama is saying today," said Diva Cohen, 19, a sophomore public relations and business major from Philadelphia. "They're talking about the same issues: war, the economy, decent health care."

Reb Powers, a senior drama major from Massachusetts, dug up audio tapes of old speeches to prepare her role as the late New York congresswoman Bella Abzug, who ran for president in 1972. She said playing Abzug changed the way she watched the first two presidential debates.

"I'm not just watching them to see and compare the candidates," she said. "I'm watching to see and compare what they say to how this woman thought about the world."

College Republicans president Sean Nabi said even the most disinterested students can't help but be affected by what's going on around them this week.

"Everyone's getting involved - there's no way around it," said Nabi, 21, a political science major from Boston. As a student volunteer, he expects to work the door at a GOP fundraiser in Manhattan tonight and again tomorrow night, seating VIPs attending the debate.

"I just want to be there," he said. "I'm going to be in the middle of the place that's going to be the center of attention for the entire world."