Contact: Sammy McDavid
As you should be aware, Mississippi State will be the site Thursday, Oct. 4, for the second gubernatorial debate between Republican Gov. Haley Barbour and Jackson attorney John Eaves, his Democratic Party opponent.
The 7 p.m. program in Lee Hall auditorium is being sponsored by the student Stennis-Montgomery Association, with assistance from the university's John C. Stennis Institute of Government, Office of the President and Mitchell Memorial Library's Congressional and Political Research Center.
Bobby Harrison, Jackson-based reporter for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, and Aundrea Self, anchor and reporter for WCBI-TV in Columbus, will provide questions for the candidates. Senior Lori Holland of Starkville, S-MA president, will serve as moderator.
For the convenience of media covering the event, the first three rows on the auditorium's west side (toward the Colvard Student Union) will be reserved for reporters with company-issued or other official identifications. [Side exit doors to the seats' immediate left will permit easy egress, if necessary.]
To ensure adequate media seating and other accommodations necessary for coverage, reporters and other news crew members planning to cover the debate are asked to contact the Office of University Relations as soon as possible at 662-325-3442.
The MSU campus is equipped for wireless Internet access, so reporters desiring to file stories via their Wi-Fi-equipped laptop computers during and after the event may do so with ease. This will require, however, first obtaining a guest log-in from a UR staff member. Reporters whose computers don't have Wi-Fi capabilities are invited to file from UR offices in George Hall, which is across the street from the auditorium's west-side exits.
Additional information on specifics of the debate itself may be obtained by telephoning S-MA president Lori Holland or Stennis Institute executive director Marty Wiseman at 662-325-3328. If neither is available, ask for institute office manager Judy Fulgham.
Other questions regarding media accommodations may be directed to either UR director Maridith Geuder or news editor Sammy McDavid at the number underlined above.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.