By Jillian Ames
Bruin contributor
james@media.ucla.edu
This weekend, students will be given the opportunity to hear speakers and discuss topics such as free speech and civil liberties.
LOGIC, a self-proclaimed objectivist student group on campus, is holding The Philosophic Foundations of Freedom: A Conference on the Principle of Individual Rights. According to club founder and director Arthur Lechtholz-Zey, the conference’s main objective is to define liberty, investigate why it is desirable and inform listeners on how to achieve it.
The conference will consist of a series of speakers, each of whom will address various topics related to liberty, including an introduction to the individual’s rights, the separation of church and state, property rights and free speech.
Saturday afternoon will include a question-and-answer panel featuring Judge Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and UCLA alumnus.
“Judge Kozinski is by far our biggest speaker yet,” Lechtholz-Zey said. “I e-mailed him on a long shot and he called and said he was interested. It will be great to give students a legal perspective.”
Conference speaker Eric Daniels, research assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina and a lecturer on free speech, said he is especially looking forward to the question-and-answer panel, where students will be able to ask Kozinski about his perspective on law and ask any other questions about his profession they might have.
“It is a great opportunity to hear from a person who sits on the federal bench,” he said.
Lechtholz-Zey said the conference is relevant not to only to students interested in pursuing law, government, or politics as a career, but to all students, who are all affected by governmental decisions.
“One of the biggest areas free speech is attacked is on college campuses,” Daniels said. “It is in these years of development students form ideas that will shape their lives and the nature of this country. Their ideas are ones that are controlling this nation for the next 30 to 40 years.”
Daniels, who speaks frequently on college campuses, added that the conference is a good opportunity for students to learn how to defend their right to free speech.
This weekend’s event is not merely an extended lecture hall, as coordinators hope to engage students in discussion with interactive portions. Lechtholz-Zey and events director Kerry Perry, a second-year political science and history student, planned a seminar and interactive games that show students how to be politically involved in a peaceful manner.
“At this age people are passionate but don’t know how to express (it) and make meaningful changes,” Perry said.
Through the seminar, Lechtholz-Zey and Perry said they hope to educate students on the proper way to take a politically active leadership role in society.
The conference on individualism is by far the largest event put on by LOGIC, according to Lechtholz-Zey, and members expect anywhere from 200 to 300 people this weekend.
Founded in 2004, the club LOGIC has more than 1,700 people on its mailing list, consisting of current UCLA students as well as alumni and other non-UCLA affiliated members.