The Political Science Association will be hosting an election night party for students.

“The idea is that since the College Republicans and College Democrats have their own parties to attend, we wanted to present an option for those students who are neither Republican nor Democrat,” said Nathan Polak, a senior political science major and the president of PSA.

Polak said as of right now, the event is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in Room 2150 in Coleman Hall.

He said fliers will be posted in Coleman Hall as soon as possible if any changes are made.

The group plans on discussing the results as they come in via Internet since they lack a cable connection and television.

The upcoming election has provided and will provide many teaching lessons for the political science department.

“It’s one of the most exciting events that we have the opportunity to experience as political scientists, and certainly the outcome of it will have tremendous impact on what we teach,” said Richard Wandling, chair of the political science department.

Textbooks will be revised and updated, especially American government textbooks.

The election also provides interesting case studies for political science teachers, Wandling said.

He said this election will provide interesting examples in the study of campaign strategies, campaign fundraising and the presidential transition.

“We know we’ll have a new president and whoever that new president is there will be changes in people in important policy advising positions in Washington,” Wandling said.

He said whoever becomes president there will be changes in a number of policy areas from taxation and spending through to global warming.

“There are a number of policy implications and those will all be opportunities for us to examine in a classroom context,” Wandling said.

The political science department has several events planned post-election.

Wandling said the big event the political science department has relating to the upcoming election is the Illinois Political Science Association conference, which Eastern is hosting this year on Nov. 8.

Various panels will be held that deal expressly with the election.

A roundtable discussion will be held with political scientists from around the state interpreting the 2008 primary and general election results.

The Keynote speaker for the convention is Brian Gaines from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

His presentation is titled, “Predicting Presidential Elections” and will discuss his research related to public opinion polling and forecasting.

The PSA is also planning to host an event following the election that will most likely focus on the results of the election, Polak said.

This will most likely be a student or faculty panel discussion.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at ezulz@eiu.edu.