Meeting for the first time since they exchanged contentious words during campaign season in 2004, Boston University College Republicans and Democrats held an informal debate on foreign affairs at the College of Arts and Sciences Tuesday evening.

The discussion touched on American progress in Iraq, the responsibilities of the United Nations, America’s role in the world and democracy in the Middle East.

Members of both sides said they were well-prepared and impressed with one another’s performance in the debate.

“I think [the Democrats] performed well,” College Republican e-board member Jay Dulski said. “They retained a degree of civility and maturity throughout the discussion.”

CAS sophomore Reginald Rajakaruna said the attitude of the event was far different from previous formal debates in which participants were rude to each other.

“I expected a yell-fest where they would go back and forth,” he said.

Rajakaruna said he came to the event to gain “perspective and follow politics more.”

A formal debate between the clubs prior to the 2004 presidential election resulted in chaos and yelling, True said. He said the goal of both clubs this year was to foster communication in a polite manner.

“We wanted to do more bipartisan events, bring more discussion to campus … to better understand each other,” he said.

Mroszczyk said he agreed with his counterpart, explaining that this year’s members made it a goal to establish civil discussion. He said he did not want to see a repeat of last year’s debate.

For a first informal debate, the event went well, Mroszczyk said.

“We could use more people on both sides,” he said. “I would like to do this once a month.”

Students on both sides said they found the event interesting and said they would like to attend future debates between the clubs.

College Democrats President Peter True, a CAS senior, and College Republicans President Joe Mroszczyk, a CAS junior, moderated the discussion.

Democratic club members sat on the left side of the room, while Republican members sat on the right. True and Mroszczyk fed the debaters questions to ignite discussion and allowed both sides to respond and take the discussion in different directions.