Final Qualification Nod Nears for Stockton College to Host Presidential Debate.

Earlier this year, the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey's proposal to host a Presidential Debate on its campus in the fall of 2012 was accepted by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Stockton was one of 12 colleges and universities to submit an application, of which only Hofstra (which hosted a debate in 2008) and Stockton are located in the Northeastern US.

The final step in deciding whether Stockton is qualified to host a Presidential Debate will be in the hands of representatives of the Commission on Presidential Debates after a site inspection of Stockton's Campus.

Today I spoke with Daniel Douglas, Executive Assistant to Special Assistant to the President of Stockton College, and he told me the site inspection is "soon" and that he is "optimistic," and that "Stockton is more than qualified to host a debate."

The qualifications to host one of the four debates (3 Presidential, 1 Vice-Presidential) include:

• Air-conditioned debate hall of at least 17,000 square feet
• Media filing center near the debate hall that is at least 20,000 square
• Availability of 3,000 hotel rooms within 30 minutes of the site's location.

The sites that fulfilled the prerequisites were then provided a complete list of detailed qualifications before filing their proposal.

Stockton College officially opened and dedicated the College’s new 154,000 sq. ft. Campus Center earlier this week which is sure to impress the inspection team. The center includes:

• An 8,800 sq. ft. event room which can be expanded and contracted to accommodate numerous events
• 400-seat food court
• Coffeehouse, game room and student lockers for commuter students
• Five meeting rooms
• Offices for more than 20 student organizations plus the student newspaper, radio and television stations
• A bookstore
• Wells Fargo Bank and ATM

Dr. Saatkamp, President of Richard Stockton College, was quoted about the center in a recent Stockton press release, "The Campus Center represents an exciting new era at Stockton and will enable the College to better meet the needs of our students and community".

Best of Luck to Stockton!

For more information and to support Stockton's effort to host a debate, pleased visit:

wwww.Twitter.com/StocktonDebate

wwww.FaceBook.com/StocktonDebate