Along with Longwood’s announcement of being chosen to host the 2016 Vice-Presidential debate, changes in procedures and regular activity will be necessary in order to successfully hold the debate.
The University plans to work next year's academic calendar around the debate by extending Fall Break to a full week, according to President of Longwood University Taylor Reveley IV.
“The purpose of that being to really maximize the way everybody on campus can be involved,” said Reveley. “So rather than people having class, we could just have a solid week of great things focused on the debate.”
Reveley is eager for the many opportunities that Longwood students and staff can take advantage of.
“There are going to be programs that need to be organized, speakers and things like that. There are going to be lots of volunteer opportunities to work with making sure that the VIP’s on campus are getting to the right places and working with the commission on the flow of the day of the debate itself,” said Reveley.
Student housing could potentially be utilized for the debate according to Reveley, it depends on the exact timeline of when the new dorms in front of Arc will be up.
“If we needed secret service space or something, it could be that rather than moving everyone in those dorms in mid-August, late August we would wait until right after the debate to move students in,” said Reveley.
Because of Reveley’s experience when working at University of Virginia, he had a good sense of the requirements a university must uphold in able to host such an event which caused him to advocate for Longwood as that host.
“We’ve got this really compelling story here at Longwood as well, our history, just the fact that we’re one of the 100 oldest colleges and universities in the country, third oldest public university in Va. and the amazing poetic profound fact that the Civil War ended on High St. and the Civil Rights Movement began at the Moton Museum,” said Reveley.
According to Reveley the Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates are a vital part of America’s democracy and because of the ceremony surrounding that they represent the future, which is why the debates are held on college campuses.
“Elections are about the future in a deep and inherent way and everything about Longwood contributes to that,” says Reveley.
Longwood being chosen for the debate not only affects the university but also the Town of Farmville. Longwood is situated right in the middle of the town, placing the town right into the impact.
Farmville Town Manager Gerald Spates says the impact should be more positive than negative. “I know there’s going to be a lot of work that’s involved in making sure that everything goes smoothly. We’ll have to have extra police officers in here. There will be some minor disruptions in the community with all the new people in here, but I think most of it is going to be positive.” Gerald said.
Businesses will be impacted by the influx of customers the debate will bring with it. Small businesses which are not used to “lines out the door” will have to adjust themselves. Spates says that most businesses are already excited for the debate and have acknowledged that they will need to be prepared.
Traffic will also be greatly impacted by the amount of people coming in for the debate. Because of the high increase in cars and satellite vans, Spates says that extra police officers will be needed to help control traffic.
“When we determine what we need for the town, we’ll certainly be bringing in law enforcement from across the commonwealth... Places like Roanoke or local jurisdictions all around will, I’m sure, send support in to bolster up what we need for security and for traffic control...Departments work extremely well together, regionally and across the state to help participate in these events,” says Curtis Davis, the Farmville chief of police.
Although most traffic will be in town, roads leading to Farmville be impacted by traffic as well. There will be people not only driving in but also flying in to the airport. Because there are not enough hotels in Farmville to house all the journalists attending the debate, there will be traffic impacts in all towns and cities surrounding Longwood as well.
The people who will perhaps feel the greatest impact are Farmville residents. Farmville is already a relatively small town, so there isn’t really any way for residents to avoid any impact.
“We have to be concerned for the people that live here… it’s going to be an inconvenience for a short period of time, and we have to make sure that we can deal with any inconvenience to make it less of an impact on our residents,” says Spates.
The town and university have a year to plan for impacts, and Spates points out that they aren’t going to know absolutely everything they need to know for the event until a few weeks before. This may require several adjustments in different aspects of town management.
“It’s going to cost us some money to do it. It’s like buying advertisement. Your name’s out there on national TV. Millions of people are going to see the Vice-Presidential debate coming to Farmville and Longwood University. That’s something you can’t buy, and the small expense it’s going to cost us, I think it’s worth it,” says Spates.
Although Longwood is taking on most of the financial impact due to the debate taking place on campus, Spates says that once the traffic of people leaves the campus, the town then takes the financial responsibility with police and public services.
As far as public transportation, Spates says there probably won’t be an impact, but that there may be some change to transportation depending on what Longwood decides to do with students.
“I think the benefit you’re going to get from it outweighs the inconvenience,” says Spates.
The Farmville Police Department and Longwood’s Police Department have started working together to plan what procedures and protocols will be put into place for the debate.
“We’re having meetings already to develop strategies and plans and so forth, and bringing all the partners on board. So it’s an exciting thing for all of us,” says Longwood Chief of Police, Robert Beach.
Both the Farmville Chief of Police, Curtis Davis, and Beach have previously worked with the Secret Service on several occasions.
“I’ve already been in touch with them (Secret Service) since the announcement. Working with Secret Service has always been very good. This is what they do... They’re going to come in and support us and we’re going to support them, and that’s the way these things work. We do it together...” Davis continues, “...They don’t just come in and take over. They come in and work with you. It’s a joint effort. I can anticipate no problems working with them.”
Davis says that planning for the debate immediately began after the announcement and that there shouldn’t be too much financial impact to the police department.
“That’s all going to depend on the method of how many people we’re able to utilize from other jurisdictions, how much that will help. Also, there will be some equipment needs, but at the same time, that’s not going to be a giant expense. But again, it’s really early to anticipate what kind of impact it will have…” says Davis.
Volunteers from the community may be needed for different roles and tasks on campus, but Davis doesn’t anticipate that many will be used to help law enforcement.
“From a law enforcement perspective, we would use limited numbers of volunteers, mainly because of security measures. But from the town or from the university, obviously there’s probably roles for volunteers to take,” says Davis.
Davis also says that the possibility of volunteers undergoing a background check will probably depend on what their role is and where they are located. Volunteers closer to the candidates would need to undergo more of a background check than those farther from the debate.
Although there is a significant amount of details that need to be sorted and organized, Beach says that the amount of time before the debate will allow for plenty of preparation and planning.
“It’s a tremendous amount of work, but the people that set these things up are perfect at it. They know exactly what to do. So, having a year to work on getting preparations done for that is going to be a daunting task, but it will be it will be an exciting task. It should be an exciting task for the entire university to accomplish something like this,” says Beach.
The Vice-Presidential debate will be held in Willett Hall on October 4, 2016.
“This is a once in a lifetime experience for students. It’s a special thing to get to see history being made right before your eyes. It’s a special thing to see history being made on the campus that you love,” says Reveley.
Follow The Rotunda for more updates as the town and university prepare for the debate.
