Examining the state of the Union

By Siobhan Peiffer

Visiting Harvard professor Michael Sandel watched with bemusement at the Yale Political Union's Mon., Feb. 24 debate as representatives from the Union's six parties rose from the floor and made their announcements. Puzzling over the distinctions between Tory and Conservative, Liberal and Progressive, Sandel finally confessed, "And in the midst of this confusion, I have to persuade all six of you." Sandel, with Yale political science professor Rogers Smith, debated before a capacity crowd on civic virtue versus liberal rights--a particularly appropriate resolution for a Union striving for civility after a contentious and disappointing fall semester.

Seniors remember when a packed lecture hall--400 were present at the Sandel/Smith debate--was the YPU norm, not a cause for celebration. Four years ago, the '93-'94 Union saw record crowds and consistent guests of national prominence, such as Caspar Wein-
berger, Malcolm Forbes, and Camille Paglia, GRD '74. Even the non-Perot, non-famous visitor brought out students; the smallest meeting (with relative unknown Fred Krupp) hosted 230 people. Last semester, even a United States Senator, Joseph Lieberman, MC '64, LAW '67, (D-CT) drew fewer than 50. "We're at a critical point," YPU President Brian Fischkin, PC '98, said. "We're rebuilding a lot of things."

Ups and downs

In some sense, the peaks and valleys of public interest are nothing new to the Union. "Every year the Daily or the Herald comes out with an article saying that the PU's dead," Andy Katzman, BK '98, last semester's Union vice president, said. Since its founding in 1934, the Union has seen its share of depleted ranks. WW II almost finished the YPU, and recent grads remember an abysmal period in the early 80s. But, as Katzman put it, "it's never dead."

Laura Moranchek, PC '98, past speaker of the Union, agreed: "Everything in the Union is cyclical." Though the YPU may no longer list almost 2,000 students on its rosters, the current organization of 1,300 official members remains the largest undergraduate group on campus. This semester's administration is hoping to maintain the Union's remaining prominence and address the problems of last semester.

Lambasted leadership

"We want people on the Yale campus to take a second look at the Yale Political Union," YPU speaker Andrew Diamond, CC '99, said. He added that "we sold many memberships at that [Sandel-Smith] meeting." Rebuilding is especially difficult during second semester, since most students buy memberships (the main source of funds as well as audiences for the PU) at the first meeting of the year. Without a strong fall Union to pull in new students and funds, spring crowds and spending are disadvantaged.

"The fall term's administration was probably one of the worst the PU has seen," Derek Webb, DC '98, chair of the Party of the Right, said, characterizing operations as "irresponsible and incompetent." Though many were less outspoken in their opinion, most agreed with Diamond's assessment that "last semester was not one of the strongest in the Union."

Most members pinpoint the Executive Board of the PU as the source of the problems. "The officers last semester didn't like each other much," Fischkin said, though he added that since then, "people have realized that attempts to be contentious are not going to be productive." Fischkin cited a lack of direction, planning, and follow-through, especially in recruiting guests. "They didn't bring in the big name speakers people are used to," Rebecca Antoine, DC '99, a former coordinator of the YPU's Women's Caucus, said.

Conservative party stirs controversy

Communication problems grew during squabbles over the Conservative Party, which was formed in May 1996 by former Tories, POR members, and unaffiliates who felt that "the parties on the right were overly politicized and internally factious," party member Thatcher Gearhart, PC '97, said. The aim was to "create a party on the right that would combine intellectual rigor with a more inclusive approach," current chair Christopher Martin, SY '99, said.

After a "prolonged struggle" including a joint POR-Tory proposition to amend the YPU constitution and require a Union-wide vote for recognition, the Conservatives became the sixth party of YPU this fall. Newly-elected Union president Veronica Tucci, SY '98, promptly switched her allegiance from the Tories to the Conservatives, thus alienating the party coalition that had elected her. "People took that as a direct slight," Francisco del Valle, CC '97, a Tory and past president of the Union, said. Tucci's administration, according to del Valle,

was "a disaster from that point on." Tucci

would not comment for this article, and former VP Katzman also would not comment on last semester.

The fall board had more than peeved constituents to overcome, however. Board members cite special difficulties in procuring speakers last semester. Many speakers request honorariums or expect honorary degrees, and an election year meant that politicians already had packed schedules, or would cancel at the last minute. "Considering the situation, I think the guests we got were pretty good," treasurer Wendy Silver, MC '98, said. Moranchek disagreed. As speaker, she was "more of a bystander. I wasn't really kept up with day to day functioning," she said. "Neither the vice president or president did their job very well." Poor guests were "directly a function of poor leadership," she said.

Fischkin acknowledged that the timing was especially unfortunate: "In a presidential election year, interest should have been high. Some people turned elsewhere." And Yale offers many alternatives to the Union for speakers and political activism, including revitalized College Democrats and Republicans, the Yale Business and Economic Forum, and the Yale Black Political Forum, where, according to its co-chair Jaime Harrison, "There are no rules and regulations hindering the conversation."

Focus on fame or floorfights?

Signing guests was traditionally the sole province of the vice president, "the most important position in the Union," according to del Valle. But without support from Union leadership, the VP position can seem like drudgery. "The VP is getting lower and lower on the totem, with no recognition," del Valle said.

Campus punditry doesn't help matters. "When the credit really isn't given, when people are saying that the Union is a dying organization, it's discouraging," Diamond said. Fischkin hopes to solve this problem by spreading around both burden and credit for the high-profile task of booking speakers. "The officers this semester are working as a team," Fischkin said.

Guest problems have emphasized an omnipresent debate within the Union: should its primary role be as a lectureship series or student debating forum? Those on both sides of the issue feel that the Union has swayed too far in the other direction. "You need to find guests of national stature," Richard Kim, DC '97, former chief whip and chair of the Liberal party, said. Del Valle clarified: "The parties should be more a platform for exercising student debate," leaving the larger Union meetings to be a place for interesting visiting speakers.

Del Valle admittedly compromised the rules of the Union at several meetings of his tenure, forgoing student debate to attract big-name guests like Steve Forbes--and the accompanying TV coverage. "You need to encourage interest of some sort," del Valle explained. Some feel that these efforts were insufficient, and that the YPU's guest problems stem from del Valle's leadership last year.
"The trend of declining guest lists goes back two years," Kim said.

Fischkin hopes to please all sides by bringing quality, politically relevant speakers that will, in turn, prompt interesting and relevant student debate. Consistency is crucial. "Attendance has been up," Fischkin explained. "Having guests on a frequent basis builds steam." With at least one meeting a week, the current Union has already hosted as many guests as it did during all of last semester. Former Speaker of the House Tom Foley and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) are slated to speak after break. The current YPU board also favors less recognizable but politically qualified speakers over celebrities such as James Earl Jones. The Sandel-Smith debate, which attracted the highest Union
attendance since Ross Perot's campaign stop at Battell Chapel last fall, is proof to many that this philosophy can draw crowds.

Long term members--those most likely to obtain leadership positions in the Union--disagree. "Debate is the most important thing," Robert Stilling, MC '99, chair of the Liberal Party, said. "The whole idea of the PU is debate and discussion with other ideologies." And in the YPU's distant past, before star-studded guest lists, debate dominated and drove the Union. "The Union was established for the sole sake of student debate," Webb said. "The guests were to make debate more fruitful." Webb cited the preference for speakers over students as one reason for the YPU's decline. The recent failure even to get quality speakers, he feels, only highlights this long-term, systemic problem. Diamond agreed, but admitted, "You need to have good speakers in order to have the best possible debate."

Internal fractures

Some allege that student debate encourages Union polarization. "We've driven away the mainstream," del Valle said. Kim confirmed the trend, describing an "exodus from the center." More constitutional controversies or floor fights, sometimes "pretty trivial," as Christopher Martin, SY '99, chair of the Conservative Party, put it, can turn away those moderates who don't sympathize with either of the two competing views.

But both Stilling and Webb, who lead the oldest parties of the Union, deny that fragmentation has gotten worse recently. "[The Union] has been in flux for a long time," Stilling said, citing a history of parties coming and going. The Progressives were once Liberals, and
the Torys formed as a
POR offshoot. Even the formation of the Conservative Party has had little effect on the POR, according to Webb.

Conservative parties gained Political Union strength with the end of the Conservative Forum, an abbreviated alternative lecture and debate series that was founded in 1993 and lasted only a year. "[Conservatives recently] became pretty adamant in the PU," del Valle said. Currently, "they definitely try to differentiate themselves." Though the Liberal Party is technically the largest with 200 official members, only 60-70 are active, perhaps because of a generally liberal campus. Smaller but more fervent conservative groups--the Torys, for example--therefore have considerable influence within the Union.

Dedicated members often feel stronger affiliation with their parties than with the Union as a whole. "I identify first with the Party of the Right, not the Union," Webb said, adding that most members of his party feel that "the project of the Party of the Right is exponentially more important than the Union." Stilling, too, stressed that "it's important to separate our party from the Political Union. We're the backbone of the PU. If the PU died tomorrow, we would still be here." A weaker PU perpetuates the problem, because when the Union lags, "people retreat into their own parties," Moranchek explained.

"The worst time for the Political Union is when it gets bogged down in internal struggles," Fischkin said. While personal pettiness may be good preparation for the reality of politics, it does little to foster Union support on campus. "[The Political Union] exists to get people elected. It doesn't exist to serve the Yale campus anymore," Katzman said. "We've existed too much for our own good and not for Yale's good."

Everything old is new again

Floor-fighting and stonewalling have always been somewhat inevitable between parties. But previous Political Unions had a greater seriousness of purpose and cohesion as an organization. The Union once debated each bill up before Congress, then sent the YPU's vote to Capitol Hill for consideration. The Union had its own "house" for debates, where feelings ran so high that the University posted police outside meetings.

"It was less trivial that it has become at certain times in recent years," professor Gaddis Smith, PC '54, GRD '61, said of the Union during his undergraduate years. "It generally seemed to be a more serious organization." Even Kim contrasts current Union sentiment with "a sense of excitement that I felt when I was a freshman."

But Smith warns that "this may be the rosy glow of nostalgia." "Good and bad [Unions] are dependent on the number and quality of the people involved," Moranchek said. Her view is typical of those involved in the YPU, who see definite improvement this semester. Fischkin defines his task as "making the Union the central place for politics on campus," but whether that optimism is realized depends on the strength of such leadership.