FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

YALE UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATES FORM COALITION FOR DEMOCRACY

New Group Seeks to Promote Moral Clarity, Defense of Democratic Nations

NEW HAVEN, CT, February 6, 2003 – Undergraduate students at Yale University have formed a proactive group for the defense and perpetuation of democracy around the world.

Yale College Students for Democracy (YCSD) is a new coalition of Yale students from across the conventional political spectrum that seeks to further the “protection of liberal democracies and the expansion of those universal rights and liberties we exercise here in the United States,” according to YCSD President Matthew Louchheim.

Student members believe in the following principles:

That, targeting innocent civilians is an unjust act;

That, governments are established to uphold justice and serve their citizens;

That, human dignity demands respect for people of every religion, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation;

That, the rule of law and self-determination are necessary to protect these rights from an arbitrary authority;

That, the United States must continually strive for moral clarity in the formulation of foreign policy.

And that, democratic countries, including the United States and its allies, have the right to vigorously oppose those despotic regimes and terrorist organizations that threaten international security.

YCSD exists because “many in the Yale community ignore human rights abuses and injustice abroad and continue to focus on so-called evils of the American government,” Louchheim said. “They fail to recognize the vulnerability of the United States and other democracies in the face of despotic, intolerant, and illiberal regimes and terrorist organizations.”

YCSD will be holding a series of lectures and rally events in the coming weeks, beginning with a speech from former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey on February 13th in Sheffield, Sterling, Strathcona Hall (SSS 114) at 4:00 PM.

For more information, please contact YCSD.