Stockton College throws its hat in the ring to host presidential debate

Wanted: sites for four presidential and vice presidential debates in 2012.

Requirements: air-conditioned hall, place for media to file reports, parking lot with space for 30 television trucks - and 3,000 hotel rooms within a half-hour's drive.

The call went out this year and a dozen colleges and universities, including Atlantic County's Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, applied to be a part of history.

Their qualifications are being reviewed by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates in Washington, which will announce its decision by Thanksgiving.

The stakes are high. Serving as the site of an internationally televised debate can raise the stature of a campus and pour millions of dollars into the local economy by creating air and rail traffic and drumming up business for hotels, restaurants, and retailers.

A debate at Stockton would "showcase the region and state in a most favorable light, and in a global sense, illustrate how the free exchange of ideas and free elections work in a great democracy," said Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., president of the Galloway Township school, which has grown exponentially since its founding in 1969.

Stockton is a "natural choice," he added. "Our facilities, location, and infrastructure make it a practical choice as well."

The 11-member nonprofit commission, formed in 1987 to sponsor and produce the debates, is planning three face-offs for presidential candidates and one for vice-presidential candidates. It will chose four sites and two alternate locations.

Each debate costs about $1.7 million, which comes from foundations, corporations, and other sources. The use of the sites is donated.

Little-known Stockton is definitely in the running. The public liberal arts and professional studies institution, which has about 7,000 undergraduates and 800 graduate students, spent two months on its application, said Sharon Schulman, special assistant to the Stockton president for external affairs. "It's very specific and detailed."

The school's 4,000-seat sports center has been proposed as the site, said Saatkamp, who noted the lodging available at Stockton's recently purchased Seaview Resort, in Galloway Township, and hotels in nearby Atlantic City.

The 2,000-acre main campus in the Pinelands National Reserve is close to Atlantic City International Airport and the Airport/Tech Center complex, home to the New Jersey Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing.

"We're looking at the soundness of the facilities to meet the needs of the debates," said Janet Brown, executive director of the commission.

"These are historic events," she said. The events are planned so as not to conflict with campus activities, but to "involve students in a piece of the general election. . . . They give an opportunity for civic education."

The commission has not fully analyzed the economic impact of a debate on its locale, but it must be positive: Five past hosts are in the running again.

They are Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Washington University in St. Louis; Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.; Centre College in Danville, Ky.; and Belmont University in Nashville.

Wake Forest is going for a three-peat: In 1988, George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis debated there, and in 2000, Al Gore and George W. Bush faced off.

The experiences were "extraordinarily rewarding," said Wake Forest spokesman Kevin Cox.

"The debates contributed to an expanding awareness of the university," he said. It "was consistently portrayed in a positive manner."

Thousands of people descended on Winston-Salem, Cox said. In addition to commission staff and media, large campaign staffs and party officials flooded the area, along with security officials and vendors involved in technical and logistical issues.

"Stockton has the physical and human resources, ability, experience and desire to make a successful debate happen," Saatkamp said.

"What a remarkable message this would send to students, faculty, staff and community: We are engaged at the highest levels and prepared to display our abilities on the international stage."