ERIC H. WESSAN ZACHARY T. REYNOLDS MARCUS S. BAUER JAYSON A.

PARSONS
Chairman Secretary Chief Whip Chancellor

1 February 2018

The purpose of the Whip Sheet is to stimulate interest in the upcoming Debate Caucus. To that
end, it sets out arguments on both sides of a resolution on which conservatives are likely to disagree
among themselves. In doing so, it often employs hyperbolic language parodying both sides, along with
allusions to current events and canonical works of literature.1

The Whip Sheet is not a brief—it does not present an argument in support of a single
conclusion—and it certainly does not announce the views of the Society.

Indeed, the Society, as such, has no view on any topic. The organization adopts a point of view
in exactly one way. At the end of each Debate Caucus, all arguments having been aired, those who are
present vote either to adopt or to reject the resolution. At that point, of course, the arguments advanced
in the Whip Sheet have been superseded by those made on the floor. The Society chooses a particular
resolution precisely because the Chairman believes the issue is likely to be one on which Members will
likely have disagreements worthy of a Debate.

The Society does its debating on the floor. Other than these reminders, therefore, the Society
has no further comment on this week’s Whip Sheet. In that spirit, the Chairman again invites Members
and Friends to consider:

Resolved: Raise the Bar.

The Society will gather in the first-floor Library of Ida Noyes Hall on Tuesday, the 6th of February. Ida
Noyes Hall is located at 1212 East 59th Street, at the intersection of East 59th Street and Woodlawn
Avenue. The Chancellor will make available the wares of the Provostery at 7:00 p.m., and the
Chairman will gavel the caucus to order at precisely 7:30 p.m. Gentlemen wishing to speak on the
floor should wear a tie; ladies should observe a comparable sartorial standard. The Chairman invites
Members and Friends to join him at the Pub after the debate. General questions about the Society may
be directed to ebs@uchicago.edu.

1
Such as Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus,” which is inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty
and contains the celebrated lines:

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”