With Super Tuesday around the corner and the pressure building on candidates to come out on top, the issues are getting lost in the shuffle, and the University’s chapter of Roosevelt Institute wants to change that.

The group is hosting a debate on immigration Monday in the Student Learning Center, they said, just in time for students, faculty and staff to head to the polls.

“We’re doing this to raise awareness about the issues, spread knowledge of the political candidates and raise interest in the elections for all,” said Lucas Puente, the event’s organizer and center director of international trade and security for the institute.

One student each from the College Republicans, Demosthenian, Lambda Theta Alpha Latina Sorority, Phi Kappa Literary Society, Students for Latino Empowerment and Young Democrats will be part of a six-person panel. Puente and Patrick Diver will ask 12 questions, and various panelists will be asked to respond.

“The responses won’t reflect the entire views of the organizations – the Young Democrats panelist won’t necessarily stand for Clinton or Obama – and with an issue such as immigration it’s hard to have a uniform belief or policy for all,” Puente said.

“But they will answer as a person from the Democratic party.”

Larry Nackerud, professor of social work, will give an introduction about the status of immigration in the country. The questions will explore conservative, liberal and moderate approaches to the issue, while pointing out specific stances of the candidates running in both primaries.

“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time this semester and last semester we’ve had so many diverse political organizations come together on one debate for such a crucial issue,” Puente said.

“It’s a way to hear different perspectives, prepare ourselves to vote and get involved in the future of the country.”

The institute studies issues such as health, immigration and public education and presents policy at a national conference in April. Student responses from Monday’s debate will be used to write the policy.

“We’ve had a great response from the organizations involved, and their enthusiasm and interest level combined with our passion for policy should make it interesting to see what’s out there in terms of policy and politics,” he said.

“We decided to start early and make this a University issue.”

“We don’t want personal attacks or heated debate,” he said.

“We want to be academic in nature and stay on issue to spread information, that’s why we framed it the way we did.”

The debate will be 7 to 8:30 p.m. in SLC 150 Monday. Pizza and refreshments will be provided.