HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. ― Monday night’s verbal smackdown between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is a hot ticket on the campus of Hofstra University.
About 7,500 students, or more than two-thirds of the student body, entered the lottery for only a few hundred tickets to witness the cycle’s first presidential debate, being held Monday night in a campus basketball arena.
More than 800 students applied for about 500 jobs as volunteer staff for the event.
Some will be helping in the media center, where thousands of journalists will gather to file stories as the debate unfolds. Others will be handing out credentials, shuttling VIPs, serving as network production assistants or working as debate hall ushers.
“It’s the whole process of seeing what happens before it’s on camera,” said Madison Wright, a journalism major from Island Park, New York. She’s already watched crews construct stages where network news crews will be reporting.
Qian Xiong, an exchange student from China and marketing major, will be posting on Chinese social media during the debate.
“This is a world event,” she said, “so many people care about it.”
