Yale Political Union

Professor Alred Whitney Griswold (1906-1963), who would later become University President, founded the Yale Political Union in 1934 in order to combat the apathy that characterized Yale's political culture in the 1930s. He modelled the YPU on the Cambridge and Oxford Unions.

The YPU is a non-partisan debate society. A Speaker moderates weekly debates according to Robert's Rules of Order. The Union's highest ranking officer is the President, elected for a term of one semester, who oversees the YPU's day to day affairs and provides leadership in setting the tone of any given semester.

A prominent figure (politician, journalist, etc.) if often invited to keynote a Yale Political Union debate. Students then have the opportunity to ask questions of the guest, and then give speeches of their own, either in support or opposition to the resolution. Student activity is of paramount importance, as the YPU attempts to foster leadership and dialectic on campus.

The Union is an umbrella organization that contains six independent political parties: the Liberal Party, the Progressive Party, the Independent Party, the Conservative Party, the Tory Party, and the Party of the Right. These parties are actually independent debate societies that host their own debates and activities apart from the Union, though members will come together for weekly YPU debates.

These parties have their own political leanings, as their names might suggest, but they are better understood as being distinguished by different styles. For instance, the parties on the Right tend to have more combative and intense debates that cover topics beyond the political, such as philosophy and literature. Among the parties on the right, the Tory Party generally advances an English aesthetic, the Conservative Party speaks of "principled and profound leaders" (as understood through the lens of the Western canon), and the Party of the Right challenges its members to become "great men."

Though the Yale Political Union was originally founded by a member of the Yale faculty, the current administration is generally unsupportive of the Union's efforts. Members offer different explanations for this fact; some suggest that the current administration does not see the value of having a central forum for channeling students' political energies and fostering debate, others offer that the administration may be disuaded from assisting the Union because (in recent years) its membership has become increasingly politically conservative.

All sides agree that the YPU is not as influential as it once was. Members note that this is the result of several factors. Many point to the presidency of current Massachussets Senator John F. Kerry, who was President of the YPU as an undergraduate at Yale. Historians of the Union remember him as being one of the worst presidents in Union history because he de-emphasized student debate and instead fostered a more passive, lecture-style atmosphere. The YPU did regain some of its strength in later decades (though it suffered additional blows, such as the loss of its debate hall in the 1970s), but membership numbers have been weakened in the last decade. Most attribute this to two important factors: the decline of the Liberal Party in the mid to late 1990s and the emergence of the Conservative Party (whose members split off from the Party of the Right in 1996), which orchestrated many dilatory floor fights (or conflicts over parliamentary procedure) and thus alienated members of the wider Yale community.

Though the Yale Political Union has regained strenght in recent years, the long-term strength of this resurgence remains to be seen.

External links: Yale Political Union