The Polybian Society was designed to fill a gap in Penn’s extracurricular offerings. While there are debate groups on campus, they are inaccessible to most due to intense application processes, and they require large time commitments. Likewise, there are political groups, but they are almost universally partisan groups espousing certain ideologies. The Polybian Society was created to provide a venue for open political debate and discussion without espousing any specific political viewpoint, while simultaneously creating a fun social community in which to interact with other students of a political and philosophical inclination.

The Society achieves this through various means. The main pillar of the Society is our weekly Symposium, an open and informal debate every Thursday night at 8:00 pm. Past topics have included climate change, the role of Islam in modern politics, US-Chinese foreign relations, the Eurozone crisis, and  many others. These debates typically last late into the night, and can be at times fiery; they are also incredibly fun. Where else on campus will you be able to find a socialist and an anarcho-capitalist discussing the role of government?
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The only way to really get a sense of the Society, however, is to come to one of our events, so stop by and meet us sometime soon!​

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