of pride among students, staff, and alumni. During the Confederate occupation of Old Centre in 1862, classes were held at Old Sayre library. However, the Battle of Perryville eventually forced the faculty to suspend classes for 13 days, the college's only cancellation during the Civil War. Classes were cancelled one day due to the Great Blizzard of 1978. In 1994 and 1998, when severe snow and ice storms shut down much of the Commonwealth, classes were delayed by half a day. In 2000, classes were officially cancelled prior to the Vice Presidential Debate and in the spring due to a hazardous chemical spill on the train tracks found at the end of Greek Row; the entire campus was evacuated. On March 7, 2006, classes were cut short to allow students and staff to attend a symposium honoring retiring dean, John Ward. Ironically, following a large snow storm in 1997, Ward told the college community, "Centre didn't cancel classes during parts of the Civil War; we're not cancelling them now." Yet classes were cancelled at Centre on March 3, 2014, due to weather conditions. 2000 vice presidential debate On Thursday, October 5, 2000, Centre College hosted the vice presidential debate, becoming the smallest college in the smallest town ever to serve as a host site for a general election debate. Dubbed "The Thrill in the Ville," the debate between Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman took place in the college's Norton Center for the Arts. The event was a tremendous success, being heralded by former CBS news anchor Dan Rather as "the best vice presidential debate ever held." After the 2000 debate concluded, Janet Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, said that "Centre has set the standard by which future debates will be judged." 2012 vice presidential debate Twelve years after hosting its first debate, Centre College again hosted a vice presidential debate on October 11, 2012. The debate between vice presidential incumbent Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan, with moderator Martha Raddatz, was called "one of the most engaging, enlightening, and entertaining debates of recent memory, one marked by dramatic contrasts in priorities, ideology, and personal style." Of Centre College's performance as a host site, Janet Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, said, "They aced it in 2000 and this year was even better." 2018 student protest and sit-in Over 200 Centre College students took