Great Decisions discusses Mexico 

By: Dustin Looney
Features Editor

Great Decisions met for the third time to discuss and elaborate on an interesting topic in the Tartan Room on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at 7:30 p.m. The subject matter for this week happened to be Mexico and its current state.

The group discussed topics from politics to immigration and many worthy opinions were debated.

Two members of the Monmouth College faculty were present at the discussion, modern foreign languages professors Leisa Kauffmann and Shigeko Mato.

The discussion was open to the public, and everyone in attendance was free to state their opinions. After somebody would ask a question or make a point, the professors would generally give their viewpoint on the topic.

One interesting topic which was brought up was that of the recent election which took place in Mexico. This was discussed for a considerable amount of time, and most people agreed that the election of Felipe Calderon will turn out to be a negative thing for the country.

Another current event which was talked about at Great Decisions was the wall which may be built on the border of Mexico and the United States of America.

Kauffmann had a strong opinion about this topic, as she stated, “you can go over the wall, or under the wall…you need a real solution.”

Most everybody in the room concurred with Kauffmann; some other points made were that immigrants could easily enter America via a plane or simply in a car.

The professors of the Great Decisions class are Ira Smolensky of the political science department and history professor Amy Caldwell de Farias.

The class meets every Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. The students read a different article out of a book for each week, and the article is the topic of discussion.

This class is assigned eight articles in all, and a guest with background knowledge about the topic will be present at each discussion.

The class consists of 16 Monmouth College students, and they seem to enjoy it.

Junior Erin Deford of Chillicothe, Ill., stated: “I like the class because it’s a chance to catch up on what’s going on and not only do I learn about it, but I get to hear a bunch of different opinions about it.”

Taking a class which encourages intellectual conversation and open-mindedness – now that’s a great decision.