The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, or C-SPAN, filmed a lecture presented by Professor Steffen Schmidt on March 8, 2013.

C-SPAN was created in 1979 and provides programming on public affairs 24 hours a day to millions of viewers. A camera crew from the network settled in for Schmidt’s lecture on the history of political parties and campaign ads.

Throughout the lecture, a few students participated with questions and comments for Schmidt. C-SPAN spent a lot of time in Iowa covering presidential politics and has interviewed Schmidt, a political science professor, for different stories.

“We thought that he was an engaging speaker and that he would be good for the series,” Russell Logan, producer at C-SPAN said.

“The series we are filming is called Lectures in History, and professor Schmidt gave his lecture on the history of political parties. This will air as part of our American History TV programming.”

Schmidt was excited about the opportunity to share his class with C-SPAN.

“It’s a really big honor, because very few professors and very few universities actually are asked if they would be video taped for a whole class,” Schmidt said.

This event would be “positive publicity for the LAS college, the political science department and the university as well,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt spent more than a week preparing for C-SPAN to film his lecture. He wanted to make his lecture “really exciting for an audience of maybe millions of C-SPAN viewers.”

He said it was “very stressful leading up to the class, given that I wanted everything to be geared to my students, but also that larger audience.”

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and the college; it’s not going to happen again,” Schmidt said

C-SPAN does not have a specific date as to when his lecture will air on their network.

“Once we know a date and time, we will post the information on the Iowa State website and share the details through social media,” Angie Hunt, communications specialist for the Iowa State News Service said.

This may not be the last time C-SPAN stops by the university.

“Iowa State has some great history professors, so certainly we would hope to come back to Ames at some point in the future,” Logan said.