dynamic typing question

[Jason Tesser]

I work for at a college where I am one of 2 full-time developers and we are looking to program a new
software package fro the campus. This is a huge project as it will include everything from registration to
business office.  We are considering useing Java or Python.  I for one don't like Java because I feel the
GUI is clunky.  I also think that we could produce quality programs faster in Python.  

The other programmer here is very concerned about dynamic typing though in Python.  He feels like this
would be too much of a hinderance on us and too easy for us to make a mistake and not catch it until
runtime making debugging harder.  

OK what are your guys thoughts here?  How have you all overcome the lack of static typing?  Is Python a 
bad decision here?   By the way we will be using Postgres in the back if that matters to anyone.