A new student magazine, The Middle Path, calls for Kenyon students to engage in “a dialogue all too lacking” on campus. Starting this semester, the magazine will publish articles on a variety of different political, social and economic topics with a classical liberal perspective, as noted on its website: “Examining Issues from a Foundation of Liberty.”

Classical liberalism is a political ideology that values the freedom of individuals and advocates civil liberties with an emphasis on economic freedom and limited government. The publication was started by Pranav Mulpur ’19 and Chris Healey ’20, who both said that they wanted to explore different ideas and engage in open dialogue.

“I think classical liberalism is a long-neglected tradition, especially recently, you sort of just have people sorting themselves into ‘I’m a progressive or socialist’ or ‘I am a conservative,’ and there’s this other potential school of thought or approach to thinking about problems,” Mulpur said.

They came up with the idea for the magazine at the end of last year. This semester, they applied to become a registered student organization and launched their website. After they become registered and receive funding, they hope to start printing their issues. On Feb. 6, Healey sent out an email to the student body announcing the publication.

“‘The Middle Path’ is a Classical Liberal magazine with an emphasis on ‘Upholding and Reinvigorating Liberty’ — a message we believe has resurfaced as essential in the modern political sphere,” Healey wrote in the email. “It is our hope that this publication can provide new and enlightening insight into this all too toxic political climate.”

So far, there are four posts on the magazine’s website, with articles covering topics such as President Donald Trump’s trade deals and recent conversations about increasing the minimum wage in the United States.

Healey noted that they chose the name “Middle Path” because of its significance to campus and because it reflects their hope to have balanced conversations. “We believe in freedom, but we will weigh all facts equally and come to a conclusion,” Healey wrote in an email to the Collegian.

“We hope to bring issues of individual freedom and limited government once again into the forefront of the political dialogue. These are core American values but have fallen to the fringe of political dialogue on college campuses, and are often met with undue and uninformed chastisement.”    

Mulpur and Healey both noted that they are open to different ideas and encourage students to approach the articles with an open mind. They welcome meaningful constructive conversations and hope to become involved in public dialogue on campus.

“I encourage people to be open-minded,” Mulpur said. “I think what we’re trying to do is just offer another venue, another place for people to explore interesting ideas.”

The magazine will continue to publish articles online for the remainder of this semester. Next year, while Mulpur will have graduated, Healey plans to print the magazine once a month and maintain their website.