Immediately preceding the first presidential election debate Sept. 26, a Cornell event, “Educate the Vote: Presidential Election 2016,” at 7:30 p.m. in Bailey Hall will feature a live academic debate among prominent political scientists and policy experts on two key domestic policy issues, immigration and incarceration, followed by questions from the audience.

The audience can then watch the presidential debate at 9 p.m. live on a big screen in Bailey. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required and will be available starting Sept. 12 at Willard Straight Hall, Robert Purcell Community Center and the Ithaca Visitors Bureau. Doors to Bailey Hall will open at 6:30 p.m. The academic panel will be livestreamed on CornellCast.

Gretchen Ritter ’83, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will moderate panelists across the ideological spectrum to engage students and the Cornell community on major issues facing the candidates.

The debaters:

Karthick Ramakrishnan, professor of public policy and political science at the University of California, Riverside. His research focuses on civic participation, immigration policy and the politics of race, ethnicity and immigration in the United States. He is the author of several books including, most recently, “The New Immigration Federalism,” and is founding editor of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.

Vesla Mae Weaver, associate professor of African-American studies and political science at Yale University, is founding director of Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies Center for the Study of Inequality. She studies racial inequality in the United States, how state policies shape citizenship, and the political causes and consequences of the growth of the criminal justice system in the U.S. She is the author of “Frontlash: Civil Rights, the Carceral State, and the Transformation of American Politics.”

Reihan Salam, executive editor of National Review and a National Review Institute Policy fellow. He is a columnist for Slate, a contributing editor at National Affairs, a member of the board of New America and an adviser to the Energy Innovation Reform Project and the Niskanen Center.

Marc A. Levin is director of the Center for Effective Justice at the think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation and policy director of its Right on Crime initiative, a national clearinghouse for conservative criminal justice reforms that Levin developed in 2010. Levin led the drafting of the Right on Crime Statement of Principles in 2010, which has been signed by Newt Gingrich, Jeb Bush, Ed Meese and Grover Norquist.

This event is made possible by a gift from Jennifer Koen-Horowitz ’93 and Mark Horowitz.

Event sponsors include the American Studies Program, the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, the Center for the Study of Inequality, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Human Ecology, the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs, the Cornell Population Center, the Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Office of the Vice Provost, the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, the Program on Ethics and Public Life, the ILR School, the Institute for the Social Sciences, Student and Campus Life and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.