Republican presidential primary debate at USF — tonight!

Fortunately, my friend (and, now, Patch rival)  introduced me to the Patch, so, for my first foray into the world of Patch blogging, I thought I'd examine tonight's debate between the Republican candidates. 

I enjoy a good debate, and tonight's debate is the first of the presidential candidate debates that I will watch in its entirety. This is probably because of the local publicity it has received, and that I work at USF (where the debate will be held). One curiosity to me is that a partisan event would be hosted at an educational institution. No doubt some Republican group will be paying for the use of USF facilities, but why would an institution want that association? For its part, USF has been promoting tonight's debate as one of the biggest so far this electoral season.

Although I'm not familiar with college life in the U.S., there are certainly links between political parties and universities in the United Kingdom — although I don't think they are as publicised as tonight's display. Is it a case of any publicity is good publicity for an up-and-coming college? Or is it a deliberate link to forge partisan ties? Do those ties already exist? 

Perhaps the notion of a lack of separation between political party and state is irksome to me. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to an action-packed evening of infighting in which the accused will inevitably end up supporting one of their victorious accusers.