USD Shut Out of Final Plans for Candidates’ Debate

Final plans for a series of presidential debates will not include the University of San Diego, campus officials announced Friday.

The university was scheduled to hold a debate between President Bush and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton on Sunday.

Plans for that debate were canceled earlier this week. However, after the Bush campaign on Wednesday made its own proposal for four debates, the university was still open to act as host, USD officials said.

“It was clearly a political decision that was taken and it was taken by the Bush campaign that they did not want to have a debate in San Diego,” said Jack Cannon, a spokesman for the private university.

“For the students and for the entire University of San Diego community, we deeply regret that we will not be able to host a debate,” Cannon said.

The campus was prepared for a debate, he said, after the university and its students had invested more than $32,000 for telecommunications equipment, air conditioning, banners and a 140-foot mural wall.

Student body president Shane Eric Bohart said students still plan to hold a candlelight vigil on Sunday, the day the local debate was scheduled.

“Many students have become discouraged that we could come so far and not reach the end,” Bohart said.

A representative for the Clinton-Gore campaign in San Diego said the decision not to hold a debate in San Diego showed that the president has given up hope on winning California.

“It’s obvious that the Republicans are afraid to come to California,” said Shelia Davis Lawrence, chairwoman of the Clinton-Gore campaign in San Diego. “They’ve written off California and I think they have a pretty good feeling about how the people in San Diego feel.”