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March 2006
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CAMPUS NEWS |
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From left: Catherine Kozac, Professor Patrick T. Jackson, Daniel
Maree, and Madison Iannone Students interested in public policy at AU are now able to express their ideas in a new way that doesn’t include in-class debates or updating blogs. A chapter of The Roosevelt Institute, the nation’s first-ever student-run progressive think tank, was founded at AU in February and is part of network that includes approximately 120 chapters. Three undergraduate students, senior Catherine Kozac, and freshmen Madison Iannone and Daniel Maree, founded the think tank to give students an outlet for writing about public policy while they’re still in college. “We started meeting twice a week, just the three of us, planning the launch, writing a constitution and budget, and eventually bringing other administrative members into the fold,” says Kozac. “Our constitution is now the new template in the Roosevelt Chapter Manual, as is our budget, proving that we're already on our way to being the ‘mover and shaker’ chapter.” AU’s launch event, “Mind + Movement= Might, A Celebration of Progress: Past, Present & Future,” on Feb. 25 featured guests speakers Peter Beinart, editor-in-chief of The New Republic, and Nick Edwards, founder and editor-in-chief of The Internationalist, among others. The chapter currently boasts 45 fellows, approximately 35 to 40 of whom are undergraduates and the remaining few of whom are either law school or graduate students. The Roosevelt Review is the institute’s biannual national student research journal. It gives undergraduate research fellows the opportunity to publish their ideas and have them addressed in higher levels of government, such as Congress. It accepts submissions from each college’s think tank and chooses the nation’s best policy research from any academic field. After publication, the institute distributes the journal to other think tanks, advocacy groups, and state and federal agencies and legislators. “We see American [University] bringing innovation and creativity not only to the journal, but to the organizational structure of Roosevelt,” says Kozac. Each
policy center will hold roundtable discussions with professors, Washington
experts, and other professionals to share ideas rather than having these
guests act as speakers and simply just talk to the AU fellows. Kozac believes
these discussions will be beneficial to all parties involved because,
ultimately, everyone is reading the same materials and pondering the same
issues. -Tara Shlimowitz '08 | |||
