<p>With the 2008 presidential election underway, I noticed something a bit unusual concerning the state of New Hampshire (home of the first in the nation primary) and the colleges in the Granite State.</p>
<p>For some reason, whenever there is a political event on a college campus, it seems that the event is at St. Anselm in Manchester. Likewise, whenever an expert is need to explain the quirks of the New Hampshire primary or its voters, a St. Anselm faculty member always seems to be the one giving the explanations.</p>
<p>Sometimes, you might see a UNH faculty member serving as a "talking head." And I don't recall ever seeing a Dartmouth faculty member being interviewed, which is odd since Dartmouth is an Ivy League college.</p>
<p>I am curious why St. Anselm College seems to be out front and center during the primary season and why the other colleges in the state seem to be awfully quite during the state's presidential primaries.</p>
<p>My guess is that reporters are too lazy to leave Manchester, the state's largest city.</p>
<p>St. Anselm has the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, which focuses to a certain extent on the primaries and presidential politics. It hosted the democratic debate in June and I think that reporters know that professors at the school are on top of the issues and know a lot about the candidates.</p>
<p>My guess is St. Anselm is more actively concerned with NH's local political scene vs. Dartmouth for example which is more national in perspective. That and reporter laziness lol.</p>
@slipper1234@Khipper No, St A’s is a heavyweight PS school. This has been going at the school since the 1950s. It is more than hosting debates, the PS program is nationally recognized.
@ ScaredNJDad1 The New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St Anselm College has continued to expose student to both the political system AND the MEDIA giants. The English/Communications Department has benefited as well, with students having the opportunity to work with FOX, CNN, ABC, etc.
@phunt01810 Yep, great school for a lot of things, political science, classics, nursing.
We visited in the summer and political events run year round. The students also have the opportunity to meet the Presidential candidates over breakfast.
When kids ask for recommendations on great schools for political science it is never mentioned on this forum, but for political insiders it is a top school.
Very pretty school, great location as well. The average student attends St. Anselm for the cost of many state schools.
"U.S. News & World Report ranked the college as the single, most popular location in New Hampshire for presidential candidates to visit.[6] For over the past forty years, the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) has played host to hundreds of presidential aspirants that have delivered policy speeches at Saint Anselm College. "
“The Institute was founded in 2001 through a nine million dollar grant which was secured by from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The idea of the Institute came from a series of conversations between Professors Kuehne and Manuel of the politics department and assistant vice president Anne Botteri.”
“The main auditorium of the NHIOP
The Institute consists of a 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) building built in 2001. The Institute contains six classrooms, four seminar rooms, an auditorium, television studio, offices for the college’s department of politics and Institute administration, the Common Ground cafe, a research center, and a computer lab. All of the classrooms are “smart classrooms” equipped with interactive whiteboards, LCD projectors, and built in audio and video equipment. The television studio is the only live video production and broadcast studio in the Greater Manchester area. Television journalists can interview individuals, including Saint Anselm’s experts, politicians, business and civic leaders, remotely from the studio without requiring a TV crew on site or the source to travel to the network. Operated in partnership with VideoLink, the studio is equipped with ReadyCam technology that allows VideoLink to control the camera and lighting remotely from their Boston headquarters”