With Boston city elections less than a month away, the two candidates for the city’s highest office strode into a half-full Boston University auditorium to address students at an issues forum last Wednesday.

The engagement between 12-year mayor, Thomas Menino, and City Councilor Maura Hennigan was not a debate, but a forum in which the candidates took turns answering questions posed by former presidential candidate and Northeastern professor Michael Dukakis.

Organized by the Boston Intercollegiate Government, which represents student governments from several Boston colleges, the event was meant to inform students about the election and urge them to register to vote. Today is the deadline for registration for the Nov. 8 election.

The format, which prevented either candidate from being on the stage at the same time, didn’t prevent the candidates from issuing pre-planned responses and rehashing emotional personal stories.

On the issues

Both candidates related student issues such as housing, civic involvement and keg-tracking to larger issues such as the proposed BU Biotech Lab in Roxbury and public education.

“We are facing critical issues right now in our city,” Hennigan told the audience at the beginning of the forum. “Hurricane Katrina shows just what happens when cities are unprepared to face natural, man-made or, God forbid, terrorist disasters.”

Standing with a faint smile behind the podium, Hennigan appealed to students’ desires to “make a difference” in their community.

She unveiled a mentoring program that would pair college students with students from a Boston Public Schools, and encouraged students to sign up.

“Before you graduate I want to link you up [with a high school student] so you can make a difference,” she said. “What your education is all about is having high ideals and not losing them.”

Menino said improving public schools is his most important issue, but mostly elaborated on why students should get involved in politics, citing their “brain power.”

“Don’t sit on the sidelines,” he said. “We need young people talking to the people of this city.”

When Dukakis asked about the students’ relationship with city residents, an issue of special interest to Northeastern, the mayor was equally complimentary.

“Let me say that 99 percent of our students are great kids; it’s just one percent that want to cause problems,” he said. “Some of the best ideas come from people like yourself.”

In a similar fashion, Hennigan said she thought students were “painted with a very broad brush” that stigmatized them throughout the rest of the city. Attempting to relate to students, the councilor said when she was in college she did some things she “wanted to forget.”

“By and large, students are very responsible,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with having a drink or two.”

She said she voted for a keg-tracking ordinance before the city council that would register each keg to make sure it would not provide alcohol for minors. Menino said he also supported the initiative.

Both candidates remained on point for the first part of their respective sessions, but faltered when Dukakis asked them about complaints of men with “clear substance abuse problems in the Back Bay area.”

Hennigan was quick to correct Dukakis’ characterization of men only when she was asked the question.

“I’m sorry, Governor, but women have to be included. They too have substance abuse problems,” she said.

She proceeded to tell the story of a woman she met while campaigning who told her of her own issues with drug addiction.

“She told me she couldn’t stop,” Hennigan said.

She blamed the war in Iraq for stripping cities of the funds necessary to provide attention to the poor.

After repeated questioning from Dukakis, Hennigan said she would address the problem at “every level.”

“We have to take a preemptive approach in addition to committing more beds and shelters,” she said.

Menino had his own anecdote prepared when Dukakis asked him the same question.

The mayor told the story of a pregnant woman he met during a homeless outreach program. He said he convinced her to enter a hospital, and she eventually had her baby and returned to the streets clean and sober.

Pressed by Dukakis for what he would do to remedy the issue on a larger scale, Menino responded generally, “We’ve gotta get them off the streets.”

Menino saved his strongest criticism for jaywalkers. He trumpeted his program to fix sidewalks, stoplights and paint crosswalks known as the “WalkSafe Crosswalk Initiative,” then took his comfortably-rested elbow off the podium for the first time in the entire debate to lash into jaywalkers.

“We need to start educating people on how to cross streets. Perhaps we could start taking their shoes away,” he said, getting chuckles from both Dukakis and the audience. “We also want to start posing resistance to get people who jump lights.”

Hennigan, who was not asked a similar question during her session at the podium, said afterward she hadn’t seen evidence of Menino’s initiative.

“Menino talked for 24 minutes about the question of pedestrian safety,” she said. “What is striking is the worn-away sidewalks outside this very building. If he cares about safety, why did Tom Menino not use that money to fix the sidewalks?”

Dukakis also asked both candidates what their position was on allowing the Night Owl, a late night bus service cut by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority last spring, to continue, and bars and restaurants to remain open longer.

Menino said he wanted to reopen the Night Owl because people who work late are now unable to get home on Friday and Saturday nights without paying for a cab. Hennigan said she favored later bar closings to help tourism, an idea Menino rejected.

A true debate?

Despite getting a rare chance to speak directly to students, the issue that seemed to dominate the forum for all in attendance, except Menino, was his refusal to agree to a face-to-face debate with Hennigan.

“Let’s not fool anyone, this was not a debate by any stretch of the imagination,” Hennigan said after the forum. “Why is Tom Menino afraid to defend his record? Why is Tom Menino afraid to face the public?”

Because the forum wasn’t in debate form, BU senior Jorge Estrada said he thought the format allowed the candidates to avoid answering the questions directly.

“I would’ve liked to have seen a head-to-head debate,” he said. “The mayor had more to speak of because of his record, and I think that helped him answer the questions better.”

Despite the disappointment, Cory Renzella, a senator in Northeastern’s Student Government Association and a sophomore international business major, said the forum was necessary, regardless of the format.

“Having that type of forum was needed. It’s good for the candidates to be in that type of environment,” he said after the forum. “Obviously, though, face-to-face is preferred.”

BU sophomore Celia Richa said, “Menino spoke more to the students. It seemed like Hennigan was speaking to the press,” she said. “Hennigan took the time to attack him, which seemed a little childish.”

Menino and Hennigan did come face-to-face briefly as Menino exited the auditorium. The two shook hands, and Hennigan asked the mayor if he would agree to a debate.

“I’ll see you Friday on Channel 4,” he said, referring to a scheduled forum on a radio show with a similar format to the issues forum.

Then he walked outside, greeted by a sidewalk crowd of more than 60 supporters holding signs reading “For Mayor Menino.”

The lone sign of Hennigan’s presence was a streamer-adorned SUV parked on the street, obscured by the Menino supporters.