Brownstone’s Annex at DePaul University was full of students watching the large screen as President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took the stage at the University of Denver for the first of three presidential debates last Wednesday night.

The debate had a rocky start, with both candidates going over their time limits and paying little attention to moderator Jim Lehrer, host of NewsHour on PBS.

Through the topics discussed during the debate such as education, economics and the federal deficit; both candidates strongly presented their points but had very different outcomes.

DePaul political science professor Wayne Steger believed Romney stood out in the debate.

“Mitt Romney took charge,” said Steger. “He interrupted the moderator and thereby ‘owned’ the stage. That’s a big deal because it gives him stature when sharing the stage with an incumbent president.”

DePaul sophomore Cassie Shah believes that both candidates presented their ideas equally.

“I really feel that it’s 50-50,” said Shah. “Romney’s a good speaker … but I still agree with Obama’s viewpoints.”

When asked about which issues students want to hear more about, topics included the environment, health care, immigration and the economy. DePaul sophomore Dan Lopez believes the economy is what the government should be focusing the most on.

“Americans worry about what the future of the economy is and what the next president is going to do about the current state of it,” said Lopez.

Although young people are getting more involved and show an interest in this election, many students do not seem to find it as interesting as the previous 2008 election.

“Young people who affiliated with the Democratic Party were exceptionally hyped up in 2008 to a degree that is unlikely to be matched in our lifetimes,” said Steger. “It is not surprising that they aren’t as excited about the debates.”

During the debates however, people from all over the country still took to Twitter to voice their thoughts about the candidates and news networks broadcasted several of these tweets. “#presidentialdebate2012” was at the top of Twitter’s trending topics on the night of the debate. According to NBC News, the tweets peaked at 2,615 tweets per second and there were more than 10 million tweets during the entirety of the debate.

The debate is a way for students to hear directly from the candidates what their positions are on a variety of issues. While students get to hear both parties’ ideas, several of them already had a candidate in mind. Generally, the debate did not change anyone’s opinion.

“(The debate) only solidified (the opinion I held before),” said Shah.

The next debate will take place Oct. 11 from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. There will be another viewing party in Brownstone’s Annex hosted by the Student Government Association as part of its “DePaul Votes” series.