Calvin News

WELCOME -- Welcome to Calvin College for the Michigan Republican Presidential Debate, featuring presidential candidates from the Republican party. We are happy to have the opportunity to host this event and to host media covering the debate. In this packet you will find, we hope, information that will make your stay on Calvin's campus a little more enjoyable. Included are such things as maps (of campus and of Grand Rapids), a list of hotels near Calvin, facts about Calvin and more. Here are a few notes about the debate: 
MICHIGAN REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE SITE -- The debate will be held on the campus of Calvin College in the Fine Arts Center Auditorium. That auditorium will seat just over 1,100 people for this event. 
CALVIN COLLEGE -- Calvin College is one of the country's best and biggest Christian colleges with an enrollment of 4,137 students and consistent accolades from a variety of sources, including U.S. News & World Report, the Princeton Review and more. 
MEDIA SEATING FOR THE DEBATE -- Among those 1,100 seats in the FAC Auditorium are 100 reserved for media outlets. You must have a ticket however to use one of those 100 seats. 
OTHER SEATING -- Calvin College had 300 tickets for this debate and 175 of those are dedicated for students. We would be happy to make students available to the media if you'd care to get the 18-21 year old response to the candidates. 
MEDIA CENTER -- The Media Center for this debate will be our Commons Dining Hall (one of two dining halls on campus). We are displacing students for the day and handling the overflow in our second dining hall, so that we might be able to best accommodate media covering the debate. 
MEDIA CREDENTIAL -- Your media credential will get you into the Media Center, but not into the Fine Arts Center Auditorium for the debate. 
DEBATE ON TV -- The debate is being broadcast in West Michigan by WOOD TV, the Grand Rapids NBC affiliate. We will set up the Media Center with televisions -- big screen and small -- and we will carry WOOD's feed of the debate live on those televisions. 
MEDIA CENTER SET-UP -- There will be three distinct areas to the Media Center. 1) There will be a "working area" set up with tables, power supply, phone lines for laptops, FAX machines, a copier and a few stand-alone computers with internet access. Employees from our on-campus Computer Center will be on hand to assist you with technical needs. 2) There will be an area where the candidates and others associated with the campaigns can come either before or after the debate to meet with the media. This will be a more open area. 3) There will be an area upstairs that will be set up as a "down area" for R&R. Food will be served in this area during the day on Monday. 
PARKING -- Parking for this event will be tight. We apologize in advance for that. Some media parking will be available in the Fine Arts Center parking lot. But that will be limited and you will need a special pass for that lot. Other parking lots are available on campus. For example, after 5 p.m. the Spoelhof Center parking lot (on the west edge of campus) should be fairly empty. That lot is a short, short walk from the Media Center (see campus map for complete info on parking lots). Also, a generic GOP Debate Media Parking Pass will be issued to you and you should display that in your dashboard. Our Campus Safety officers will grant a certain amount of latitude to media covering the January 10, 2000 debate. 
QUESTIONS -- We will fully staff the Media Center with both Calvin staff and students. All of our Media Center volunteers will be wearing nametags and Calvin sweatshirts. Please ask us anything! We want to help.