UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 27, Page 3
April 13, 1995
UD ACLU chapter provides forum for opposing views

     The Civil Liberties Union (CLU) at the University, affiliated
with the American Civil Liberties Union, considers its major role on
campus to be educational.
     Jeffrey A. Raffel, adviser to the group, as well as director of
the Master's in Public Administration Program and professor of urban
affairs and public policy, said the CLU has sponsored debates on major
topics, including capital punishment, legalization of marijuana use,
and where the rights of the individual may be in conflict with the
criminal justice system.
     Other activities have included helping the state ACLU with its
presentation on the Mall during Newark Community Day, visits to the
Gander Hill and and other Delaware Correctional Center facilities and
sponsoring trips to Washington, D.C., to visit the U.S. Capitol and
the White House and to witness oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme
Court.
     While national ACLU leaders say their organization's main purpose
is to advance civil liberties, student members of the CLU are
committed to a much broader array of interests and ideologies, Raffel
said. Career goals of student members include law enforcement, law
school, politics and public administration.
     Currently, all officers in the University chapter are seniors,
and Raffel said the group needs to identify individuals to fill the
vacancies that will be created by graduation.
     While many view the CLU and ACLU nationally as a liberal
organization, it calls itself conservative, in the sense that it is
helping to conserve citizens' basic rights under the U.S.
Constitution, Raffel said. One approach employed by the ACLU is to
make people aware of civil rights concerns and to stimulate interest
in them.
                                                         -Jerry Rhodes

Editor's note: The UD CLU meets at 6 p.m., Tuesdays, in the Perkins
Student Center. For information, call Raffel at 831-1658 or e-mail at
Raffel@strauss.udel.edu..