UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2020 U.S. presidential election and its potential impact on the country’s democratic values and ideals will be discussed by Penn State President Eric Barron and a pair of University experts during the season premiere of WPSU’s “Digging Deeper” on Sunday, Sept. 27.

Barron will be joined by Michael Berkman, professor of political science and director of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy in the College of the Liberal Arts, and Danielle Conway, dean and the Donald J. Farage Professor of Law at Dickinson Law.

“Digging Deeper” will air at 10:30 a.m. on WPSU-TV and can be streamed on live.wpsu.org.

Berkman said there is a lot at stake this election.

“This upcoming election has a lot of problems and a lot of challenges, a lot of it because of COVID, but other parts of it because of the efforts to delegitimize it and to delegitimize its results,” he said. “Free and fair elections are about as critical to democracy as you can find, as is the peaceful transfer of power. And so, efforts to undercut that, are of profound importance.”

For Conway, she said democratic values are constantly being challenged.

“Democracy is always at stake; it is always at stake” she said. “It is this precious institution that we have the opportunity to make better with every election and how we expand the franchise. It’s a reflection of what we are able to do and to implement in a document that had promise, the Constitution, but it has promise and effect by what we do with it.”

WPSU’s “Digging Deeper” explores how work being done at the University impacts the broader community. Penn State senior Rhea Jha serves as co-host and rounds out each episode by asking Barron questions that are on the minds of students, faculty, staff and community members.

Visit the WPSU website for more information on central Pennsylvania’s public media station. WPSU is a Penn State Outreach service.