Good morning!

As you likely know, Washington University will host the Vice-Presidential debate on October 2. Senator Biden and Governor Palin will debate each other beginning at 8 p.m. (CDT) Oct. 2 in the Washington University in St. Louis Athletic Complex.

Last week, the Washington University newspaper, The Record, announced the following debate-related item:

Have an opinion about politics? Enter this contest

By Neil Schoenherr

Students are invited to show their creativity in this election season by entering the Make it Clear multimedia competition, a collaboration between the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Vice Presidential Debate Programming Committee.The Make It Clear competition is one of several activities planned as part of the I Vote event series, designed to engage the University community in the electoral process.

To enter, students should address the following prompt: “You have five minutes one-on-one with the next would-be president of the United States. Write, describe, express or otherwise show what you would say or what would transpire.”

Submissions are due by noon Oct. 1 and can be e-mailed to the Gephardt Institute for Public Service at gephardtinstitute@wustl.edu.

The competition is open to the community at large, too, and a number of finalists will be posted on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Web site. The public then will be able to vote for their favorite entries.

Winners will be announced Oct. 12. The Vice Presidential Debate Program Planning Committee will award $100 each to the top two WUSTL students. Community members will receive recognition from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The competition rules are:

• Refrain from using anything obscene or offensive;
• Do not exceed 500 words or five minutes of video. If a submission is a work of art or other visual piece, it must be reproduced or shown in a format that can be posted on the Internet;
• If utilizing music, images, etc., please note rules governing the use of copyrighted work.

For more information, e-mail Robin Hattori, program director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service, at rhattori@wustl.edu.