Events

May  2013
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Schedule of Union Debates and Guests (Spring 2013):

YPU Debates are regularly scheduled at 7:30pm on Tuesdays, unless otherwise specified.

Organizational Debate:
1/15: “Resolved: Embrace American exceptionalism” with Dr. Theodore Malloch, business leadership scholar.
Ted Malloch is the CEO of Global Fiduciary Governance LLC, a consulting firm, and a Research Professor for the Spiritual Capital Initiative at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. He has served on the Board of the World Economic Forum, in an ambassadorial-level position at the UN, and as a senior advisor to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the State Department. In 1992, he was President of the World Economic Development Congress focused on “Building the Integrated World Economy.” His interests include the globalization of business and the economy and the power of principles in business leadership. Ted Malloch
1/22: No debate.
1/29: “Resolved: End affirmative action in college admissions” with Ron Unz, publisher of The American Conservative.
Ron Unz is the publisher of The American Conservative and author of a recent controversial series of articles on race, intelligence, and the college admissions process. In the 1994 California gubernatorial election, Mr. Unz launched a primary challenge to incumbent Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, ultimately garnering more than a third of votes in the primary election. In 1998 and 2000, he championed successful referenda in California and Arizona, respectively, to largely prohibit bilingual education in public schools as part of his “English for the Children” initiative. Mr. Unz continues to write on race & ethnicity, conservatism, and economics for his column at The American Conservative. Ron Unz
2/6 (Wednesday): “Resolved: Reject the Living Constitution” with Richard Epstein, libertarian professor of law at New York University.
Richard Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at N.Y.U. Law School and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He studies and writes on a broad variety of legal topics, including constitutional, property, and employment law. He advocates minimizing government influence in the economic sphere; his recent publications include Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration, and the Rule of Law, The Case Against the Employee Free Choice Act, Supreme Neglect, and How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution. Richard Epstein
2/11 (Monday): Gardner White Prize Debate on “Resolved: That It Is Better to Reign in Hell Than to Serve in Heaven.”
First Place will win $100 and a lifetime membership to the YPU.
Second Place will win $50 and a four-year membership.
Third Place will win $25 and a one-year membership.
2/18 (Monday): “Resolved: Be Risk-Averse” with Nassim Taleb, probability theorist.
Nassim N. Taleb is a former derivatives trader who became a scholar and philosophical essayist in 2006. Although he is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute, he self-funds his research and operates in the manner of independent scholars. Taleb is the author of The Black Swan (2007–2010) and Antifragile (2012). His works focuses on decision making under uncertainty, as well as technical and philosophical problems with probability and metaprobability, in other words “what to do in a world we don’t understand”. (official biography) Nassim Taleb
2/26: “Resolved: The U.S. Should Reduce Its Prison Population By 50%” with Dr. Todd Clear, criminal justice scholar.
Dr. Clear is the Dean of the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice. Previously, he has served as the President of the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminology and Criminal Justice. His research interests focus on the intersection of the community and the criminal justice process; his publications include What Is Community Justice?, The Community Justice Ideal, and Imprisoning Communities. Currently, he is working on research involving the relationship between religion/spirituality and crime and the economic impacts of justice reinvestment (using savings from data-driven reductions in crime to invest in neighborhood crime-prevention measures), as well as further development of his work on community justice. Todd Clear
3/6 (Wednesday): “Resolved: Markets Govern More of Life Than They Should” with Michael Sandel, philosopher.
Michael Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught over 15,000 students in his undergraduate course on “Justice,” the first Harvard course to be made freely available on the Internet. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and previously has served on the President’s Council on Bioethics. Some of Prof. Sandel’s recent books are The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? and What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. In 2008, the American Political Science Association recognized him for excellence in teaching political philosophy. Michael Sandel
3/26: ”Resolved: Healthcare Is a Right” with Dr. Avik Roy, healthcare scholar.
Dr. Roy is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a contributor to Forbes with his blog, The Apothecary. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he served as a healthcare advisor to GOP candidate Mitt Romney. Dr. Roy founded Roy Healthcare Research, an investment advice firm that provides analysis to institutional investors. Previously, he worked for J.P. Morgan and Bain Capital, among others. He has written extensively on Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) for Forbes, National Review Online, and Investor’s Business Daily.  Avik Roy
4/1 (Monday): “Resolved: America Is Not at War with Terror” with Susan Herman, President of the ACLU.
Susan N. Herman has been the President of the American Civil Liberties Union since 2008. Previously, she has served on the ACLU Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and as General Counsel. Professor Herman also serves a Centennial Professor of Law at the Brooklyn Law School. She focuses her work on American civil liberties and civil rights, specifically issues in constitutional law relating to criminal procedure and terrorism. Her most recent publications include Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy (2011) and The Right to a Speedy and Public Trial (2006). Prof. Herman was the 2012 recipient of the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize for her book Taking Liberties.  Susan Herman
4/9: Party Prize Debate on “Resolved: Burn the Machines.”
4/15 (Monday, 6:00pm): Bulldog Days Debate on “Resolved: Be a Loyal Partisan” with Barney Frank, longtime U.S. Representative for the Massachusetts 4th District.
Mr. Frank served U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district from January 1981 to January 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee between 2007 and 2011. In 2009 and 2010, he helped pass the eponymous Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a new law that the Washington Post has called “the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system since the Great Depression.” He is also an outspoken advocate for civil rights and pro-choice issues, and is considered one of the most prominent gay politicians in the United States. Barney Frank
4/23: “Resolved: That Poets Are the Unacknowledged Legislators of the World” with Meena Alexander, writer and professor of English.
Professor Alexander is Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York. She has written award-winning poetry, essays, and novels, including The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience, Illiterate Heart, and her autobiography Fault Lines. Previously, she has been Visiting Fellow at the Sorbonne, Frances Wayland Collegium Lecturer at Brown University, Writer in Residence at the Center for American Culture Studies at Columbia University, and Writer in Residence at the National University of Singapore. In 2009, she received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Literature from the South Asian Literary Association. Meena Alexander

 

Previous Semester Union Debates and Guests (Fall 2012):

 

Organizational Debate:
9/4 (7:00pm): “Resolved: The government is destroying the family” with Rick Santorum, former candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination and former Senator.
Mr. Santorum was a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, and former United States Senator representing Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007. Prior to his tenure in the Senate, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of the Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district between 1991 and 1995. During his term, he founded the Congressional Working Group on Religious Freedom, spearheaded the passage of key legislations including the welfare reform bill and a ban on partial-birth abortion, and served as the Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference between 2001 and 2007. Mr. Santorum had previously spoken at the Union in April 2008. Rick Santorum
9/11: “Resolved: Embrace Gender Roles” with Camille Paglia, cultural and social critic.
Ms. Paglia is a cultural critic and a professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1984. She is the author of the best-selling work Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson and four other books. A self-described “dissident feminist,” she regularly writes articles on art, popular culture, feminism and politics. Her new book, “Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars,” will be published in October by Pantheon Books. She earned her Ph.D. in English at Yale University under the mentorship of Prof. Harold Bloom. Camille Paglia
9/18: “Resolved: Divest From the Fossil Fuel Industry” with Bill McKibben, environmentalist and founder of 350.org. (Cosponsored with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies)
Mr. McKibben is a leading environmental activist, acclaimed author, and educator. He is the founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time Magazine called him ‘the planet’s best green journalist’ and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was ‘probably the country’s most important environmentalist.’ His first book, The End of Nature published in 1989, is regarded as the first book on climate change for a general audience. Since then, he has written a dozen books on the topic. He is currently Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bill McKibben
9/24: (Monday, 7:00pm) Freshmen Prize Debate on “Resolved: Patriotism is a Virtue“
10/3 (Wednesday, 7:00pm): “Resolved: Yale should be run as a business corporation” with Professor Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Mayer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale.
Professor Benhabib is Eugene Mayer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale and a well-known contemporary philosopher, having written about philosophers such as Hannah Arendt, as well as topics on cosmopolitanism and critical theory. She was the proponent of a faculty resolution reaffirming the values and ideals of a liberal arts and Yale education in response to the Yale-NUS project, which passed last spring. Seyla Benhabib
10/9: “Resolved: Citizens United is good for democracy” with David Bossie, President and Chairman of Citizens United.
Mr. Bossie is a conservative American political activist and, since 2000, President and Chairman of advocacy organization Citizens United. Mr Bossie had served as chief investigator for the United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. As President of Citizens United, he is famously associated with the Supreme Court landmark decisions Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. David Bossie
10/18 (Thursday): “Resolved: Diplomacy can stop a nuclear Iran” with Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of Stimson Center. (Cosponsored with Yale International Relations Association)
Ms. Laipson is president and CEO of the Stimson Center: a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to enhancing international peace and security. She also directs the Middle East/Southwest Asia program, and focuses in particular on security issues in the Gulf region. She is an expert and frequent speaker on Middle East issues, and on US foreign policy and global trends. In late 2009, she was named to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board by President Obama, and in 2011, to the new Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board by Secretary Clinton. Her previous experience prior to Stimson include serving as vice chair of the National Intelligence Council and as director for Near East and South Asian Affairs for the National Security Council. Ellen Laipson
10/30: (Event rescheduled for 4/15/13 — see above) Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district.
Mr. Frank is the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district since January 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee between 2007 and 2011. In 2009 and 2010, he helped pass the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a new law that the Washington Post has called “the most sweeping overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system since the Great Depression.” He is also an outspoken advocate for civil rights and pro-choice issues, and is considered one of the most prominent gay politicians in the United States. Barney Frank
11/5 (Monday): Presidential Election Debate “Resolved: Vote Obama” with Professor David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English
The YPU debates “Resolved: Vote Obama”, with Professor David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English for our presidential election debate. The debate is cosponsored by the Yale College Libertarians, Yale College Republicans, yNAACP, Yale Women’s Center, Yale Students for Israel, and the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale. David Bromwich
11/12 (Monday): “Resolved: America needs the heartlands” with Senator Ben Nelson, U.S. Senator from Nebraska.
Mr. Nelson is the senior U.S. Senator from Nebraska since 2001, having entered politics in 1990 upon election to governorship of Nebraska. A self-refered “conservative Democrat”, he has worked with Republicans and Democrats alike on topics of tax cuts, Medicare reform and homeland security. He co-founded a bipartisan “Jobs Squad” under the Obama Administration that advocated a reduction in spending in the economic recovery plan. He has served on the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee. Ben Nelson
11/27: Student Debate on “Resolved: Delete your Facebook”.
12/3 (Monday): “Resolved: Embrace American Federalism” with Professors Steven Calabresi, professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law and co-founder of The Federalist Society and Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University.
Prof. Calabresi is the Class of 1940 professor of law at the Northwestern University School of Law. He co-founded The Federalist Society and serves as the Chairman of the Society’s Board of Directors. From 1985 to 1990, he served under the Reagan and Bush Sr. Administrations, advising Attorney General Edwin Meese III, Ronald Reagan’s Domestic Policy Chief, T. Kenneth Cribb, and wrote speeches for former Vice President Dan Quayle. He is a graduate of Yale College Class of 1980 and earned his law degree at Yale Law School. Steven Calabresi
Prof. Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law at both Yale College and Yale Law School. He had served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a law clerk to Judge Stephen Breyer, then-justice in the 1st Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Prof. Amar is a renowned constitutional law and criminal procedure scholar, considered among the top contemporary US legal thinkers, and writes frequently for publications including the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic and Huffington Post.
Akhil Reed Amar


 

One Response to Events

  1. Meritocracy: “Asians as the New Jews, Jews as the New WASPs” | The American Conservative says:
    January 24, 2013 at 1:52 pm

    [...] the details of my January 29th debate before the Yale Political Union have now been finalized, with the YPU officers selecting the specific topic “Resolved: End [...]



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