Cal Poly To Launch Student World Assembly Project Sept. 22

Cal Poly is planning to launch on Sept. 22 an ambitious, international project aimed at increasing global awareness -- and giving people a voice -- about contemporary global political issues.

Cal Poly has teamed up with the nonprofit Raynault Foundation to create a nongovernmental Student World Assembly with ties to universities in Afghanistan, Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, England, Ghana, Kenya, South Korea, New Zealand, Nigeria, Slovenia and Thailand.

The Student World Assembly is being created as part of Cal Poly Political Science Professor Bud Evans’ Global Political Issues class.

“The goal,” said Raynault Foundation President Paul Raynault, “is to build a nongovernmental representative world assembly to represent people in much the same manner as the United Nations represents governments.

“We are striving to provide a means through which people around the world can express their views, learn about the opinions of others, and deliberate and vote on world issues,” said Russ Genet at the Orion Institute, a consulting group working with the project.

The idea is to influence global events through world public opinion facilitated by Internet-based global communications, according to Evans. The project aims to represent more countries and more of the world’s people, whose views will be conveyed by elected volunteer representatives and through an Internet voting process.

The project involves many Cal Poly faculty and staff members as well as administrators,
who are lending their time, expertise and materials. Software for the project is being developed by a cooperative involving members of Cal Poly’s Information Technology Services and the Cal Poly Foundation and the university’s Library Services.

For more information, contact Contact: Bud Evans, Political Science Department, (805) 541-6770, eevans@calpoly.edu or see the Student World Assembly Web site at student.worldassembly.net.