Pandemic Causes Changes to Presidential Debate Sites

First Debate (Sept. 29)
University of Notre Dame > Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic - Health Education Campus
[announced July 27]

Second Presidential Debate (Oct. 15)
University of Michigan > Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County [announced June 23]
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Commission on Presidential Debates
July 27, 2020

Statement: First Presidential Debate

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) today stated that the University of Notre Dame has withdrawn from hosting the first presidential debate on September 29, 2020.  CPD is pleased to announce that the first presidential debate will be co-hosted by Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic and held at the Health Education Campus (HEC) in Cleveland, OH.  Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic have collaborated on the HEC, a joint project where students in medicine, dentistry, nursing and related fields come together to learn and practice team-based care in simulated settings and, later, at actual clinical sites. This will be the second CPD-sponsored debate hosted by Case Western Reserve University.  In 2004, the university was the site of the Vice Presidential debate.
 
As previously announced, Cleveland Clinic will serve as Health Security Advisor to the CPD for all four 2020 general election debates.  They are:
 
First presidential debate:
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
 
Vice presidential debate:
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
 
Second presidential debate:
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, FL
 
Third presidential debate:
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Belmont University, Nashville, TN
 
All debates will be 90 minutes in length, will run from 9:00 - 10:30 pm ET without commercial breaks, and be broadcast by the White House pool networks.
 
The CPD is the non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)3 organization that has sponsored and produced all general election presidential debates since 1987.  The CPD receives no funding from the government or any political party or campaign.  For more information and to learn about DebateWatch2020, please visit www.debates.org.
University of Notre Dame
July 27, 2020

Notre Dame withdraws as presidential debate host site

University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., announced today the University has withdrawn as the host site for the first of the 2020 presidential debates, scheduled for Sept. 29.

After consultation with Dr. Mark Fox, St. Joseph County deputy health officer, and with the unanimous support of the Executive Committee of the University’s Board of Trustees, Father Jenkins made what he called “this difficult decision because the necessary health precautions would have greatly diminished the educational value of hosting the debate on our campus.” In a letter earlier today to the Notre Dame community, Father Jenkins said that “the inevitable reduction in student attendance in the debate hall, volunteer opportunities and ancillary educational events undermined the primary benefit of hosting — to provide our students with a meaningful opportunity to engage in the American political process.”

Father Jenkins added: “I am grateful to the many members of the University community who have devoted countless hours planning this event, and to the Commission on Presidential Debates leadership for their professionalism and understanding. But in the end, the constraints the coronavirus pandemic put on the event — as understandable and necessary as they are — have led us to withdraw.”

He concluded by saying that “despite this decision, I hope we will all remain attuned to the many important issues facing our nation during this election year — and, please, let’s exercise our right and privilege to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 3.”

Notre Dame has hosted six presidents at commencement ceremonies through the years – more than any university in the nation other than the military academies – but this would have been the University’s first presidential debate.

The Commission on Presidential Debates, of which Father Jenkins is a board member, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and has sponsored all general election presidential and vice-presidential debates since 1988.


Commission on Presidential Debates
June 23, 2020

Statement: Second Debate

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced today that the second presidential debate scheduled for October 15, 2020, will be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami, Florida.  This debate was originally scheduled for the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University has concluded that it is not feasible to host the presidential debate as planned.

The Adrienne Arsht Center is one of the world’s leading performing arts organizations and venues.  Since opening in 2006, the Arsht Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, has emerged as a leader in presenting innovative programming.  The Center’s commitment to the arts includes support for an education program that serves nearly 60,000 children each year through initiatives such as Learning Through the Arts.  This will be the second debate that the CPD has hosted in Miami: the first 2004 presidential debate took place at the University of Miami.

The CPD’s schedule for the general election debates is:

First presidential debate:
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

Vice presidential debate:
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Second presidential debate:
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, FL

Third presidential debate:
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Belmont University, Nashville, TN

All debates will be 90 minutes in length, will run from 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time without commercial breaks, and be broadcast by the White House pool networks.

All debates will be moderated by a single individual. As always, the moderators alone will select the questions, which are not known to the CPD or to the candidates.  The CPD will choose the moderators, who will be announced in early September.

The first and third presidential debates will be divided into six 15-minute segments.  The topics for the six segments will be selected and announced by each moderator at least one week before each debate.  This is the same format as was used 2012 and 2016.

The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which the questions will be posed by citizens from the Miami area.

The vice presidential debate will be divided into nine segments of 10 minutes each.

The CPD will be following all CDC, state, county and site health and safety protocols at the four debate sites.

The CPD is the non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)3 organization that has sponsored and produced all general election presidential debates since 1987.  For more information and to learn about DebateWatch2020, please visit www.debates.org.

University of Michigan
June 23, 2020

U-M no longer hosting Oct. 15 presidential debate

The University of Michigan will no longer host one of three presidential debates planned this fall in the run-up to the Nov. 3 general election, but related campus programming will continue.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced June 23 that the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami, Florida, will host the Oct. 15 debate that had been planned for Crisler Center on U-M’s athletics campus.

The other presidential debates will take place Sept 29 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The University of Utah in Salt Lake City will host a vice presidential debate Oct. 7.

In a letter shared with the Commission on Presidential Debates, U-M President Mark Schlissel said, “It is with great disappointment that I must ask for the University of Michigan to be released from its agreement with the Commission on Presidential Debates to host the Presidential Debate on Oct. 15, 2020.”

The debate planning effort at U-M was being led by Michael Barr, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Cynthia Wilbanks, vice president for government relations.

Schlissel called hosting a presidential debate “a tremendous opportunity for our university community to contribute to one of the most important features of our democracy — the open exchange of ideas — while setting an example of civic engagement and shining a light on the outstanding academic strengths of our institution.”

But he said, “Given the scale and complexity of the work we are undertaking to help assure a safe and healthy fall for our students, faculty and staff and limited visitors — and in consideration of the public health guidelines in our state as well as advice from our own experts — we feel it is not feasible for us to safely host the presidential debate as planned.”

The university will, however, forge ahead with the vigorous campus programming around the general election.

The “Democracy and Debate” theme semester will engage the university community around the topics of free speech and the exchange of ideas, what it means to be a member of a democratic society and democratic engagement from a global perspective.

Planning for virtual debate watch parties will continue and U-M students are actively competing in the Big Ten Voting Challenge.

Additional details on these and many other opportunities will be shared in the weeks ahead.
University of Michigan
January 27, 2020

Debate Steering Committee will guide U-M’s hosting efforts

Planning for the presidential debate that will be staged on the University of Michigan campus in October is well underway, with the Debate Steering Committee providing overall guidance for a long list of tasks and events being considered.

U-M will host the second of three debates between the Democratic and Republican nominees for president of the United States at the Crisler Center on Oct. 15. The other two debates will be at the University of Notre Dame and Belmont University. The debates are organized by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

Leading the effort, which will touch many aspects of the university community, are Michael Barr, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and Cynthia Wilbanks, vice president for government relations. They chair a 19-member Debate Steering Committee.

Wilbanks characterized the steering committee as providing the “north star” for the debate effort, with a separate Debate Core Team handling the critical “nuts and bolts” of the complex logistical effort.

“In the short time since the announcement that the university was selected to host a debate, the campus community already has generated scores of suggestions for robust academic engagement, and the number of ideas being suggested for engaging students in the debate is inspiring,” Barr said.

The debate planning and preparation work that is now underway “is designed to ensure we have input from all corners of the campus community, including the UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint campuses,” Wilbanks said.

U-M also will partner with the Commission on Presidential Debates and the National Democratic Institute to host a series of events during the week of the presidential debate. Those events are designed to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, open debates and accountability in government.

The Weiser Diplomacy Center at the Ford School will lead those events, which are expected to draw 80 delegates from around the globe.

Additionally, an 11-person Presidential Debate Academic Advisory Committee has been charged with identifying key themes for academic engagement — including a universitywide theme semester focused on democracy and debate — and is working to involve faculty and students in a variety of ways.

Guiding the overall debate effort is a mission statement developed in consultation with members of the steering committee, the core team, university leaders and others.

The mission statement says, in part, that as a debate host site, the university “seeks to inspire engagement in the democratic process … coordinate plans and preparations for a well-executed debate and offer programming throughout the year that will call upon the expertise of our faculty, the involvement of our students, the commitment of our staff, and the vibrancy of the entire U-M community.”

Additionally, the mission statement says, “Debating issues of the day and engaging in the democratic process are core responsibilities of our academic institution and a national — and international — imperative of our times.”

The Debate Core Team is a larger group that is representative of the many individual areas of expertise that are needed to stage such an important event, such as Information and Technology Services, Student Life, Academic Innovation, Central Student Government, Athletics, the Division of Public Safety and Security, and the Office of the Vice President for Communications.

This team is led by two co-operational leads for the presidential debate, Catherine Carver from the Ford School and Ann Zalucki from U-M facilities and operations.Inquiries regarding the presidential debate may be emailed to Debate2020@umich.edu.

Mission Statement

The University of Michigan, as one of three sites selected to host a presidential debate in the 2020 electoral season, seeks to inspire engagement in the democratic process. As an educational institution, we will coordinate plans and preparations for a well-executed debate and offer programming throughout the year that will call upon the expertise of our faculty, the involvement of our students, the commitment of our staff, and the vibrancy of the entire U-M community.

The 2020 debate provides a unique opportunity for teaching and learning across multiple platforms, engaging all voices and modeling inclusive dialogue. Our programming will connect our campuses, our neighbors, and fellow Michigan citizens with people across the nation and across the globe. We will promote the intellectual frameworks and the practical skills necessary for active engagement in the democratic process and for just governance here and abroad.

As host of the National Democratic Institute symposium with foreign experts on democratic governance, we will also further mutual learning about global issues in democracy. Debates allow for the direct exchange of often divergent ideas and perspectives, helping voters make decisions that shape the direction of our nation. Debating issues of the day and engaging in the democratic process are core responsibilities of our academic institution and a national — and international — imperative of our times.