This semester marks the inaugural year for the Public Affairs Committee (PAC), formerly known as the Public Affairs Symposium (PAS). The new group is supervised and run by Student Senate.
In the past the PAS held a week of events based around an important theme that was topical to that year. This semester the PAC has changed its setup, beginning with this year’s theme: “The Next Great Debates.”
“[The theme includes] issues that we believe are upcoming right now in American politics, emerging or changing issues,” explained William Nelligan ’14, head ofthe PAC.
These issues include legalization of marijuana, same-sex marriage, gun control, income inequality and affirmative action.
Student Senate wanted to get more input from the student body when deciding this year’s theme, so they polled the students to see what issues drew the most interest, explained Nelligan.
“We found that there was a three way tie between the first three themes: legalization of marijuana, same-sex marriage and affirmative action,” he said.
While wanting to focus on these three main issues, PAC does not want to only hold lectures on these topics.
“We are encouraging academic departments to plan brown-bag lunches where they connect what faculty are interested in and what faculty are teaching with evolving global issues,” explained Nelligan.
Unlike in years past, these events will not be held over one week. Instead, they will be spread out throughout the entire semester. One of these events is the Poitras-Gleim Lecture.
“[This is an] interdisciplinary lecture; it’s distinctively Dickinson in a way, looking for someone in one field speaking about something in another,” said Nelligan. The lecturer has not been picked yet but will be announced in the coming weeks.
There will be many events this semester on each of the topics. The next three PAC events will be part of a series related to gun control. The first of these events will be a teach-in held Thursday, Feb. 28 in ATS at 7 p.m. This teach-in features Tom Place, professor at the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law; Col. David Dowrak, professor at the U.S. Army War College; and Stephanie Gilmore, assistant professor of women’s and gender studies. Place will focus on the mechanics of guns, Dowrak will focus on the constitutional issues of gun ownership and the Gilmore will talk about the economics behind guns.
“We want to start there and not even really address the gun control issue, but address the facts of guns and gun violence in this country,” said Nelligan. This event will be on Thursday, Feb. 28, in ATS at 7 p.m.
The following Thursday, March 7, Assistant Professor of History Christopher Bilodeau will host a brown-bag lunch discussion of Benjamin Rush’s view on gun control.
The last event on gun control will be given by John Lott, an economist and author.
“[He is] a preeminent national figure in the anti-gun control movement,” stated Nelligan.
Another event will be on Thursday, March 28. This event will discuss income inequality focused on health.
On Monday, April 8, Kris Perry will discuss legal issues in gay rights. Perry is the plaintiff in a case currently on appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court that asks if the state of California can define marriage as between a man and a woman.
More events will be announced through Student Senate during the semester.
