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By Heather Stauffer, Sentinel Reporter, April 13, 2008

Last updated: Sunday, April 13, 2008 12:27 AM EDT

Messiah College hummed with activity Saturday afternoon as the 2,800-student campus prepared to host The Compassion Forum and, with it, the attention that goes with a hotly contested national presidential campaign.

“It was just six weeks ago that the idea of the event was a possibility,” said Beth Lorow, the college’s assistant director of public relations. Standing in the Brubaker Auditorium, which was gradually being transformed from the site of twice-weekly chapel services to a forum stage, she said the days since then have been both busy and exciting.

“I’ve heard of students dodging power washers,” said Amanda McMillan, a senior politics major from Pittsburgh. But, she said, despite such inconveniences, students are thrilled to have the college in the spotlight and enthusiastic about the proximity of Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Todd Holtzman, a Mechanicsburg resident and, like McMillan, a senior politics major, said it was disappointing that Republican candidate John McCain had declined an invitation to participate.

“We would really like it to be nonpartisan,” Holtzman said. However, he said, the fact that the two candidates who accepted are Democrats is interesting because, as a Christian college, Messiah is often profiled as a conservative or Republican institution.

Limited seating

The auditorium should hold about 1,000 people, Lorow said, with a number of those seats reserved for leaders in the faith and political communities, as well as national and local media,

“We’re expecting New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and of course the media that travel with the campaigns,” Lorow said. More than half the college’s tickets went to students, she said �” Messiah used a lottery system to distribute them �” but even so, there were many on campus who would not be admitted to the auditorium Sunday night.

“It’s hard to be left out of something this big,” said Holtzman, who will be there himself. However, he and McMillan agreed that watch parties planned by the college and small groups helped, as did news that CNN will air the event, which will begin at 8 p.m.

Lorow said each candidate would be given 40 minutes, with Clinton going first.

“We’re told there is going to be a coveted point at which they are both on the stage at the same time,” Lorow said, speculating that as they passed, the candidates might shake hands or �” in the spirit of the event �” hug.

“It is a compassion forum, after all,” she said, smiling.

Issues

During the forum, Lorow said, questions will be posed by co-moderators Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, and Campbell Brown, anchor of CNN’s “Election Center.” The forum is sponsored by the Faith in Public Life center and faith leaders, so candidates will be asked to discuss how their faith and moral convictions inform their views on compassion issues such as domestic and international poverty, global AIDS and human rights.

Although they would not be given the chance to ask questions, the students said they will be listening for certain topics.

“Issues that the candidates will be talking about really resonate with my generation,” McMillan said, mentioning poverty and climate change as two things that have potential to impact the world. She wants to hear, she said, “how the candidates propose to handle the government in terms of international issues.”

“We’re a world leader,” she said, “and we need to start to act like it.”

For his part, Holtzman said he’s interested in how the candidates intend to interact with people of all faiths. And, he said, because of his work as director of Outreach Teams, an on-campus organization that connects student volunteers with local non-profit organizations, he also wants to hear ideas about local and global poverty.

“I would say also that I think a lot of times it becomes about the candidates,” Holtzman said, expressing hope that during the forum, the focus will be on the issues.

Attention ‘nice’

“Pennsylvania rarely counts in the primary process,” said Douglas Jacobsen, distinguished professor of church history and theology. This year, he said, all the attention is “kind of nice.”

Robin Lauermann, associate professor of politics, said she is anticipating discussion that will encompass broader aspects of the issues.

“Campaigns can be so efficient because they boil things down to bullet points and sound bites,” Lauermann said. But, she said, focusing on just one issue, such as abortion, can conceal other connected issues that should be addressed.

Jacobsen agreed, pointing out that many voters have placed compassion issues at the top of their priority lists. That Messiah emphasizes “being and compassion,” he said, makes it a great choice to host the forum.

One example of that emphasis is the college’s Collaboratory for Strategic and Applied Partnerships, which is headed by engineering professor David Vader and has a mission of “demonstrating God’s love through creative applications of our academic disciplines that meet human needs while valuing local culture.”

Messiah, Vader said, teaches students to “think deeply, feel deeply, act deeply,” and he hopes they do so in connection with the forum.