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G. Terry Madonna, director of the Millersville State University Election Polling Institute, will speak on “The 2000 Presidential Election: How to Think About It and Why” from 7-10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, in the auditorium of Lafayette’s Kirby Hall of Civil Rights.
Event sponsors are the Lafayette Communications Union, Kirby Government and Law Society, and The Fred Morgan Kirby Program Fund.
The Communications Union is a special-interest living group in Keefe Hall, Lafayette’s newest student residence. It was formed this year to “foster effective oral communication practices useful in daily, academic, business, competitive, and future stages of Lafayette students’ lives,” says co-president Emily Murphy, a sophomore from Center Valley, Pa.
The Communications Union also has scheduled sessions featuring discussion and analysis during the Presidential debates by faculty and members of the Lafayette Forensics Society at 8 p.m. October 11 and 17 in room 103 of Hugel Hall of Science. It is also planning a campus-wide debate to increase students’ knowledge about the presidential candidates and an Election Day Party. Earlier this term the group conducted a presentation on using PowerPoint software and sponsored a talk on the evolution of presidential debates.
The Kirby Government and Law Society is a student organization that fosters student-faculty relationships beyond the classroom, promotes student awareness of current legal and political issues, and provides opportunities for students to expand their knowledge of postgraduate studies and career possibilities through informational events and career-oriented events with alumni.
Madonna will analyze presidential election voting trends nationwide and in Pennsylvania, a battleground state. He is director of The Center For Politics and Public Affairs, a political science professor, and an academic pollster at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He holds a Ph.D. in political history from the University of Delaware. Madonna directs the Keystone Poll for the Philadelphia Daily News, The Harrisburg Patriot, and FOX News, Philadelphia. He also polls for WITF Public Television and The Lancaster New Era. From 1993-98 he was KYW-TV’s pollster as well. He has polled for the Pennsylvania Medical Society, WHTM-TV, the Commonwealth Foundation, the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Universities, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and others. He has surveyed Pennsylvanians on attitudes toward crime, health care, abortion, riverboat gambling, women in government, the economy, the Clinton presidency, and many other subjects.
Madonna is a regular analyst for WGAL-TV, Channel 8, Lancaster, and a regular panelist on “Pennsylvania Newsmakers,” a weekly statewide news and commentary program. He has been an election analyst for KYW-TV, Philadelphia and provides election coverage for WHYY, Public Television in Philadelphia. During the 1994 primary campaign for governor of Pennsylvania, he moderated a series of gubernatorial forums for various organizations. In 1991, Madonna was a political consultant to WHTM-TV, Channel 27, and also co-hosted two public television specials, “Senate Race ’91,” broadcast throughout the state. In addition, Madonna was a regular panelist on “The People’s Business,” a weekly news and commentary show broadcast throughout Pennsylvania on public television in 1993-94. A frequent political analyst and public affairs commentator, Madonna has also provided analysis to the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Pittsburgh Gazette, Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, CNN, ABC News, and CBS News.
The author of numerous publications in the fields of American history, government, and politics, Madonna has written Revolutionary Lancaster: The Leadership (1976), Reapportionment: A Primer for Pennsylvanians (1993), Merit Selection of Appellate Judges: Why Its Time Has Come (1994), Pennsylvania Votes, 1994 (1995), and Pennsylvania Votes: Presidential Primaries, 1972-1992: A Sourcebook, (1996), as well as chapters in books and articles in specialized publications.
Madonna has served on numerous governmental boards and commissions, including the Benjamin Franklin Partnership Board, to which he was appointed by former Governor Dick Thornburgh, and the Board of Embreeville State Hospital, to which he was appointed by former Governor Milton Shapp. He served in the 1970s as a Lancaster County Commissioner.