For those of us who were (un)lucky enough to get into the UNLV Student Union watch party, there are no doubts that organizers’ intentions were good. There were tons of decorations, a free CNN hat on every chair, an awesome AV setup, complete with huge screens and there were even speakers outside the doors, where the food was, so you wouldn’t miss anything if you had to get a hot dog. And yes, the food. Enough for 600 people. Unfortunately, a little more than half that number showed up.
The real problem wasn’t the fact that there was only one bomb-sniffing dog on hand, not nearly enough K-9 for all those leftovers, but the fact that even when the debate was half over, and it was clear no one else was coming, if you weren’t on the list, you weren’t getting in.
Even Jeremiah McClain, who works for the Office of Information Technology on campus, whose office is literally 25 feet from the people guarding the entrance, was turned away. Never mind that he has worked at UNLV for 10 years, and was actually doing network support for the event that night.
So, what’s with this list anyway? Well, according to the person who turned McClain away, Amy Brooks of UNLV Community and Government Relations, 400 of the spots were given to the faculty, staff and students that didn’t win one of the 450 slots at the Cox Pavilion. The other 200 were reserved by Voto Latino, an organization who works to raise the number of Latino voters, and who actually paid for half the event.
It’s not that the organizers were bad people, it’s just that, according to Brooks, “there were 500 people who didn’t get anything and desperately wanted to go,” and, “we tried so hard to make it as fair as possible.”
From his office, looking out at the forbidden zone, McClain summed up the situation best when he said, “You would think that the debate’s been on for an hour or more now. What would be the problem with letting people in? You would think that they could let people in if it were obvious that there was room for people who wanted to participate. You sent out a bunch of invitations to people who aren’t interested, so why not have people who are interested?”
