With the announcement of the vice presidential debate still a consistent topic of conversation on campus, many students have began to ask what costs the debate will bring to our school.
Although costs are always a concern with any major project or event, Justin Pope, the president’s Chief of Staff, says that the money will be funded from the university’s cash reserves.
According to the application for the vice presidential debate, Longwood will need to provide different areas of support for the debate with a total estimation of $1,950,000.
“We expect between the fee and the investments we would make in the campus, and some of the other associated costs, we’ll probably spend somewhere between $3-5,000,000 altogether on this event,” says Pope.
Pope says there will probably be some philanthropic and sponsorship opportunities which will offset part of the costs. Although the costs are considerable, Pope says there have been no monetary issues yet and none of the money will be coming from any budgets. Pope also says none of the budgets will be affected or cut.
“We don’t have any doubt that it’s a good investment in the long run. The previous debate sites have estimated the value of publicity alone to be as much as $50 million,” says Pope.
According to Pope, the university has also seen an increase in applications which could partly be due to the announcement of the debate announcement.
“Applications for next year’s incoming freshman class are currently running more than 50 percent ahead of where they were for the current freshman class at this time a year ago,” says Pope.
The university is in a “slow run” right now while they wait to hear more details about how to proceed from the debate commission. Pope says the university has already started to think about facilities on campus and what other elements from the Master Plan that could be completed by next October 4.
“So obviously we can’t do major year-long projects, but we’re seeing if there’s some things we could accelerate so that they will be ready when they eyes of the world are on Longwood… Over the next couple weeks, we’ll make some final decisions, moving ahead on some of those things.”
According to Pope, these elements will be items which the university is planning on completing anyway, but will just need to be completed faster because of the debate. Some of these elements are possibly Willett Hall, Brock Commons, items around Curry and Frazier and general landscaping.
“We’re starting to think through the process of how we’re going to plan some of the extra-curricular activities around the debate, and whether that’s guest speakers and events that will involve students, and we will certainly be involving students in that process soliciting their ideas,” says Pope.
The university will be making announcements soon about soliciting ideas and gathering feedback from students about the kinds of events they will want to be a part of.
Follow The Rotunda for more updates as the university continues to prepare for the vice presidential debate.
