Students selected to attend debate react

For Jamie Czermak, attending last week's second presidential debate at Belmont University seemed impossible.

But just hours before the debate began, a university official informed her, via e-mail, that she was among a limited number of students selected to attend.

"It's definitely a moment in history that I will not forget," said Czermak, a Florence native.

About 1,100 of Belmont's almost 5,000 students entered a lottery at the end of August. Less than 400 tickets remained for students after the bulk of the tickets were offered first to party affiliates and the Commission of Presidential Debates. Czermak, an elementary education graduate student, said she entered her name every day to increase her chances of being selected.

"Belmont told us they wouldn't know until the very last minute how many tickets they would have," she said.

Czermak received the e-mail at 2 p.m. Tuesday and was, just hours later, sitting in the Curb Center with Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

She said that being selected was surreal.

"I figured that wouldn't even be a possibility," Czermak said. "When I talked to other people at the debate, they thought the same thing."

Czermak listened as both candidates sparred verbally in mapping out their plans as potential president. She said as a McCain supporter, the debate only reinforced her decision.

"I try to always look at both sides," Czermak said.

When it came to Obama's plan to give tax breaks to those who make under $250,000 a year, Czermak said she could not agree with him.

She said McCain gave more specifics on how he would help citizens caught up in the mortgage crisis. But she said she does not feel that the government should be responsible for such downfalls. Czermak said there were other issues that both candidates could have touched on.

"I wanted to hear more on border control," she said.

Czermak's paternal grandparents, both from Warsaw, Poland, endured the heinous concentration camps of the 1940s and moved to America in the 1950s. They both went through the legal red tape to become U.S. citizens, Czermak said. She said if her grandparents were patient and willing enough to become legal citizens, so should other immigrants.

Pamela Johnson, director of strategic marketing and special initiatives at Belmont, said more than 500 students and faculty teamed up to prepare for the debate. She described the opportunity to host the debate as historic and unparalleled.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many of us," Johnson said. "We're very much a different university now."

Czermak said, as a child, her parents instilled in her the importance of political awareness. Now, as an adult, she said she understands their belief in the importance of voting.

"I think it's a privilege, but I also think it's a responsibility," she said.

Shelbia Brown can be reached at 740-5733 or shelbia.brown@TimesDaily.com.