IOP Plans Monthly Student Debates Based on Model of Oxford Union

Margaret Thatcher did it, and so can you.

Student coordinators at the Institute of Politics (IOP) yesterday announced plans to hold monthly political debates at the Kennedy School's IOP Forum.

The debates, scheduled to begin in April, are modelled after the Oxford Union, a forum at Oxford University that has produced such notable politicians as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was president of the society. Members face one another in formal debates over civic questions, the Harvard organizers said.

"The Oxford Union is the biggest political program at Oxford," said John T. Bender '88, who chairs the student advisory committee for the IOP. "It's a model parliament very well known in England."

Bender said he proposed founding a similar organization this fall during his successful campaign for chairman of the student advisory committee. The committee's 47 members gave the Harvard Political Union unanimous approval Sunday night.

IOP Director Richard Thornburgh, former governor of Pennsylvania, said a political union at Harvard would help students to improve their public speaking. "I'm a working politician," said the administrator. "The process thrives on debate."

"I think it's a good opportunity, particularly in an election year, to give students a chance to sharpen their skills," Thornburgh added.

Bender said the debates would help bring together the more than 1000 Harvard students participating in programs at the IOP. "The rank and file of the IOP were feeling not that close--that they didn't have a defined status," Bender said. "We needed an institutional way of dealing with this."

Committee member Justin J. Daniels '89 said the debates would also make the IOP more prominent in the University community. "It's healthy," He said. "It will make us more of an active participant on campus."

The IOP is run almost exclusively by students, though it is affiliated with both the University and the Kennedy School. The planned debates will be the first of their kind in the Institute's history.