Bobcat Update TV News

Texas State University to Host First 2024 Presidential Debate

Reporter Noah Calk

(San Marcos) On September 16^th of 2024 Strahan Arena, commonly known for Bobcats athletic events, will be jam-packed with some of the most notable politicians worldwide. The University was chosen to host the first Presidential Debate of the 2024 general election. It’s the first time a Texas university will host a presidential debate… ever.

“And we want to a make to make sure that not just our campus, but our city, the hill country of Texas, the entire state of Texas is represented well by this opportunity,” said Kelly Damphousse, president of Texas State University.

As an illustration of how big a story this is, more than a thousand media outlets approached the university to cover the story, including interviews on KVUE, the ABC television stations in Austin, where university vice president Eric Algoe talked about the long process to land the debate.

“Several months of effort from a very small team of the right people to put together what ended up being a couple of hundred pages of documentation that explained how we could fulfill what the commission was looking for. That’s akin to a Super Bowl. So, this is a massive undertaking, but they’ve really got it down to the science,” Algoe said.

Texas State will be the first university in the state of Texas ever to host a presidential debate, and it’s the only university in Texas that has graduated a United States President.

“I think just the legacy, the fact that Lyndon Baines Johnson, the great graduate from here, made this an attractive option, as well,” Damphousse said.

Photo shows the university events center, where the debate will be held — The University Events Center at Texas State University will host the first Presidential Debate of 2024 in September.

Texas State students will have a unique experience watching the debate. Although students won’t have direct access to the event, they’ll be able to view the broadcast from the same facility that basketball games and graduation are held in.

“I think the debate will get students more involved,” said Alana Anthony, a Texas State student. “The students here have always been pretty into standing up for what they believe in, and especially with all the turmoil and political things going on right now, I definitely think students will show up.”

Bobcat Bulletin will be back in September to see which candidates will be debating in the arena.

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Apartment Intrusion Goes Viral

Reporter Sydney Trahan

(San Marcos) For college student living in student housing, intrusion is often in the back of their minds. While authorities can’t always help, social media can link students to those who can.

With the knowledge of the power of social media, Isabel Canales took to TikTok, posting a video that shows an intrusion on October 29th. She hoped to identify the people captured on Ring cameras they have in- and outside their apartment. In no time at all, the video reached over 2 million views, and viewers provided a name of the suspect.

“I think I posted that TikTok super early that morning like right after it happened because I was like ‘this cannot happen again,’ like ‘I’m gonna find this guy,’ so I posted it,” Isabel Canales said. “I started getting tons of comments, I got a few DM’s referring to this one guy. Another girl had sent me a ring footage of these guys walking around in The Retreat about 30 minutes later still going into people’s houses. So, I ended up looking the guy up and I’ve never heard of this man before. I looked him up on Twitter and it said that ‘whatever his name was’ had blocked me.”

“Once we all realized that Belle had left her phone over at her friend’s house, we all run out and I’m about like halfway there and I like turn around and I like see the group of guys walking up to the house and like I just can’t tell what’s going on so I like start walking up to the house and I’m like ‘hey like what are y’all doing?'” Isabella Bean said. “Because at this point they’re already walking away from the house, but they’re kind of like speed walking like you can tell like something’s up. So I was like let me go lock the door because that creeped me out. I come in, I grab my keys, I locked the door, and I go back.”

Canales said they contacted the police and reported a residential burglary. “I got a call from the detective,” Canales said. “We had a chat for like 20-30 minutes, let him know what happened, I sent him the name, I gave him all the information I had, all the pictures, and it’s been about, how much? Like a month since. I’ve never gotten a response.”

“We’re definitely a lot more wary like we put the door stopper on it every single time, the window stoppers, we locked the door with the dead bolt, everything,” Bean said. “It kind of sucks. It’s like, you’re just constantly thinking about what happened that situation like it could happen again you know? Like you never know.”

Though social media has negative connotations, this story shows it can be useful for more than just laughs.