About 70 people watching the presidential debate in the Thomas Building Wednesday night responded positively to comments made by Barack Obama, cheering, applauding and laughing to responses from the Illinois Senator.

Samuel Settle (freshman-political science), a member of the College Republicans, said the crowd was clearly slanted in favor of Obama, but that is to be expected on a college campus.

Settle said the debate confirmed a lot of what he disliked about the Illinois Senator, yet McCain should have been more active in defending himself.

"[McCain's] gotten better as the debates have gone on," Settle said. "He should've been more aggressive."

McCain and Obama debated domestic and economic policy on a red stage with a blue backdrop at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

Obama answered one question about education and answered with his plan to grant a $4,000 tax credit for college in return for service.

"I think it's important for us to make college education more affordable," Obama said.

McCain's response to the education question was that good teachers need to be rewarded and charter schools, though not the only answer, provide competition.

"We must improve education in this country," McCain said.

Eliza Altenderfer (freshman-elementary education and Spanish) said she attended the event for a class and was mostly set as far as how she would vote.

"At this point, it's kind of the same old, same old," she said, adding the presidential candidates were set on which side they were taking on the issues.

Altenderfer said it is important to host events because it gets young people out to see what the issues are. She said most people on campus are pretty well-informed.

"It's hard not to be when you're in college," she said.

The Center for Democratic Deliberation sponsored Wednesday's event in 102 Thomas Building, which saw the last of the presidential face-offs by the Commission on Presidential Debates, said Cheryl Glenn, Penn State professor and co-director of the Center for Democratic Deliberation.

Student groups Democracy Matters and the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council also participated, she said.

Before the event, Glenn said discussion after the debate would not center on which candidate won, but rather how well the candidates answer questions, address issues and behave.

The debate coverage was muted after it was over and a handful of students and professors remained behind for some discussion.

Sara Mehltretter, a graduate research assistant for the Center for Democratic Deliberation, said that rather than have the spin from the television networks, students would be allowed to form their own opinions.

"The big thing is empowering them to make their own decisions," Melhtretter said.