Students Pass War Resolution
By Conor O'Rourke
News Associate

For the first time in the history of the ASPC Senate-Pomona's student-run governing body-a national political issue was on the ballot. Tuesday's school-wide election for next year's Senate also featured an anti-war resolution intended to articulate an official stance, on the part of the student body, in opposition to the war with Iraq. The resolution, written by Senior Class President Ji Chong '03 and Nathan Fisher '03, was passed Tuesday night by a majority vote, 339 to 307.

"By this resolution being passed, I believe it shows that Pomona students are thinking about the war and participating in the worldwide community," said Chong.

Like all resolutions, this was a position statement. "The Senate's vote last week was not to endorse the resolution but rather to place it on the ballot," said Associate Dean of Students Neil Gerard.

The resolution states opposition to United States military action in Iraq and urges a peaceful de-occupation of the country. Reasons given for this position include that the U.S.'s current administration is not the majority representation of the American people, and that the military action is in violation of the United Nations Charter, an organization of which the U.S. is a permanent member.

According to the ASPC Constitution, such resolutions can be put on a ballot in two ways: either through a petition of 10 percent of the student body or by a majority vote of the Senate. This resolution was a result of the latter method.

Now that the resolution has passed, co-authors Chong and Fisher have larger plans for it. "Hopefully, various media will pick up on this and report it. I do plan on sending copies to the various levels of government, from Claremont town hall to the White House," said Fisher.

Beyond concerns that it was the first non-college issue to be voted on by students, the anti-war resolution invited further controversy. Students like James Solomon '06 spent the days leading up to the election protesting the resolution by pamphleteering his opinions in the dining halls. "My personal feelings about the war aside, this resolution is not what a liberal arts education is all about. It forces you to take one of two sides on an issue of which there are many sides, and by being passed closes off debate," Solomon said.

Some members of the Senate felt similarly, and voted unsuccessfully to keep it off the ballot last week. Dissenter Sam Glick '04 cited an article in the ASPC by-laws that states Senate is not to engage in substantial political propaganda. "While this is still technically allowed," he said, "I don't think it is in the spirit of what students want ASPC to do. We are a voice for campus affairs-not national political affairs."

But another by-law states that ASPC is responsible to serve as a forum for students to voice concerns and facilitate student participation in the surrounding community. According to Chong, the resolution is increasing debate rather than cutting it off.

While the resolution will stimulate discussion on U.S. foreign policy for at least the next few days, debate over its larger implications and the precedent it sets will shape future Pomona students' ideas of liberal education. In the words of Fisher, "There are those that would have you believe that the liberal arts are about the equal regard for a diversity of opinions, but that is not exactly correct. I believe that the liberal arts provide, at their core, the tools for one to take responsibility for one's own decisions and one's own morality."

ASPC Resolution 02-03: 01

WHEREAS we, the ASPC, respect and adhere to the principles of democracy and jurisprudence, and

WHEREAS the United Nations Charter, signed in San Francisco in 1945, and which represents the most formidable expression of the principle of international law to date, begins with the following preamble: "We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims," and

WHEREAS the government and armed forces of the United States of America has not only entered the territory of Iraq without provocation or in accordance with the Security Council of the United Nations, of which the United States is a permanent member, but has also violated the spirit of legal, humanitarian action as an alternative to war as articulated in the founding document of United Nations, and

WHEREAS the military campaign of the United States government has already killed scores of American and British soldiers (many by 'friendly fire'), thousands of Iraqi regulars and thousands of civilians in whose name the United States government has launched this aggression, and

WHEREAS a disproportionate number of United States ground troops in Iraq are poor men and women of color no older than students at this college, and, in fact, at least one member of this college is currently stationed in Iraq, and

WHEREAS the current administration of the United States government does not represent the majority of the American people according to the democratic principle of popular sovereignty through free and fair election, and

WHEREAS the government has estimated that a war will cost $200 billion resulting in less federal funding for education, health care, job training and housing at a time of increasing need for students at this college and of the American and world populations, especially for poor and non-white peoples of this college, nation and world,

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that we, the Associated Students of Pomona College, oppose this military action and urge the government of the United States to implement a program of safe but immediate de-occupation of Iraq and to begin proceedings toward a peaceful resolution to arms and reconstruction of the territory under the auspices of the people of the world as represented by the United Nations.