Student peace group makes debut

President Bush wants war. Is that all you need to know? Apparently not. At least not for the over a hundred students and faculty members who filled Bodek Lounge last night to hear what four Penn professors had to say about America's policies toward Iraq. The "teach-in," organized by Penn's newest student peace organization -- Penn Students Against War in Iraq -- presented audience members with extensive information about everything from the war to the recent State of the Union address to the world's political climate. And the teach-in didn't just feature a laundry list of topics. There to explain the issues were four prominent speakers -- Professor Emeritus of Finance Ed Herman, Associate Director of Penn's Middle East Center Nubar Hovsepian, Political Science Professor Rogers Smith and Harvey Rubin, director of the Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response. Though all of the panelists successfully engaged the audience, some students felt that the event was too one-sided. "I think they should've had another professor on the panel that was for the war," College sophomore Jillian Tuck said, noting that she felt badly for Rubin, who was the only pro-war panelist. But one of PSAWI's head organizers, College of General Studies student Natasha Mitchell, pointed out that a huge, albeit unsuccessful, effort was made to have a balanced panel. "This was, unfortunately, more one-sided than we wanted it to be," Mitchell conceded. "We tried very, very hard to find pro-war speakers on campus but it was impossible." But while the event may have been unbalanced, it certainly wasn't uncrowded. The question posed on the flyers --"The President Wants War: Is that all you need to know?" -- seemed to have done its job, with many students feeling that they needed to know more. The room was so crowded that large numbers of people ended up sitting on the floor or even standing. "It was packed," Engineering sophomore Aileen Nowlan observed. "People were very engaged, and it was a very diverse crowd." Most students attended because they were encouraged by professors, but some came on their own initiatives. Take College Republicans chairman and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist David Copley. He attended last night's event, and even helped plan it, because he wanted to broaden his understanding of the Iraq situation. "I'm always open to hearing other points of view," Copley said before the event. And many students said that, like Copley, they left with more knowledge than that with which they came. "There was definitely a lot of good information that was given out tonight," College freshman Eric Rechtschaffen said. Other students echoed Rechtschaffen's words, saying that they felt like they now had a much better sense of where they stood on the war issue. The teach-in was PSAWI's debut event and was organized and funded with the help of Penn for Peace.

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