Longwood will be the site of vice presidential debate

Longwood University will host the vice-presidential debate in next year’s presidential election.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Wednesday that the debate, the sole meeting between vice-presidential candidates, will take place on Oct. 4, 2016 on Longwood’s central campus in Farmville.

“I believe that no campus in America could be more fitting for this remarkable and great responsibility in our democratic process,” Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV said in a message to the university community. “The energy of this event will run through and invigorate everything we do in preparing the next generation of citizen-leaders for the historic years ahead, which the 2016 election will do so much to shape. This is a proud juncture for our great university.”

Recent colleges and universities that have hosted vice-presidential debates include Centre College, Washington University in St. Louis, Case Western Reserve University and Georgia Tech.

The 2012 vice-presidential debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky. attracted 51.4 million television viewers nationally.

The non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates has sponsored and produced every presidential and vice-presidential debate since 1988.