PSU Encourages Intellectual Diversity
By Tim Anderegg
A & F Associate

It is a well known fact that many universities and colleges are quite left-leaning in their political positions. While the root causes of this are unclear, the effects are obvious: a low amount of unbiased debate and discussion concerning the increasingly important political issues of today.

The Pomona Student Union (PSU), a new student run organization, was formed to address this lack of intellectual diversity. According to their goal stated on the PSU website: “The goal of the PSU is to further the educational purposes of the Claremont Colleges by representing and promoting intellectual diversity on campus.”

The lack of intellectual diversity on our campus was first seriously considered last year by the president of the organization, who is one of its founding members, Ben Waterman ’04. He was concerned enough about the issue to write a letter to the administration last semester expressing his dissatisfaction and looking for assistance in addressing the problem. He stated in his letter that “the conservative viewpoint can’t be taken into account properly without better discussion of the issues.”

As a result of Waterman’s efforts, along with the efforts of several other students, the PSU was formed. The first event, a debate between two CMC Professors of Government, P. Edward Haley and Mark Blitz, was held last year. The debate addressed the future of U.S. foreign policy and attracted a large number of students, encouraging the founding members of the PSU.

The administration provided direct funding, thus allowing the PSU to bring in guest speakers, arrange for both student and faculty debates involving members of the 5C community and provide resources for student use on a website. Waterman believes that “students and colleges everywhere have a tendency to be liberal, so it takes a concerted effort by the students and the administration to keep this lack of diversity from being overlooked.”

PSU emphasizes the fact that it is not trying to influence the ideology of the colleges towards the left or towards the right, but instead wants to provide a neutral medium for a variety of issues to be discussed from a variety of viewpoints. Rather than influence, according to the website, PSU strives to “ground student opinions in more intelligent and well-thought out assumptions.”

The organization now consists of an executive board of 10 members, with Waterman as president, and Dave Levine ’06 as webmaster. Many of the members on the board spent last summer in Washington D.C., allowing them to get contacts and meet people who might be interested in coming as guest speakers.

The website that PSU has created has a variety of resources, including links to several topical websites, a list of upcoming events, an online form for student feedback, and contact information. Their links include information concerning the Middle East and terrorism, as well as a link to an independent news source.

They already held one event this year. Last Friday, the 12th of September, in the Frank Blue Room during lunch, there was a debate between a student who was in favor of the liberal presidential candidate Howard Dean and a student whose thinking was in line with the more traditional Democratic Leadership Council, a group with a desire to push the Democratic Party more to the center. Waterman indicated that it was a success, with over one hundred people attending.

PSU hopes to hold an event each Friday in the Frank Blue Room. The next event planned is a debate between Professor Haley and Dr. Nadav Morag, Director of the Center of Israel Studies at the University of Judaism. Their topic will be the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and it will be held in the Blue Room on September 19.
Other upcoming events include a talk by Professor Jonathan Adelman from the University of Denver, again on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and a talk by Derek J. Mitchell, a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, concerning U.S. foreign policy toward Asia. Topics later in the year will include healthcare, the environment, and globalization.

PSU has many plans for this year and it hopes to eventually receive the funds necessary to bring in bigger name guest speakers. It wants to get more students involved as well, including those from the other colleges. In the meantime, PSU intends to try to enrich the academic experience of Pomona students, emphasizing on the website that “underpinning the goals and aims of the PSU is the central tenet that one cannot maintain a firm belief in anything unless it is challenged.”