AU's chapter of the Roosevelt Institution, the student think tank, is considered one of the top 10 in the country, according to President and co-founder Daniel Maree, a sophomore in the School of International Service.
The Roosevelt Institution, which is the first student-run think tank, was created in November 2004 by four undergraduates from Stanford University. The organization is dedicated to increasing the input of student voices in policy debates, as well as publishing and distributing student policy ideas, according to its Web site.
Maree founded AU's chapter in 2005, together with Madison Iannone, a junior in SIS, and Catherine Kozak, a senior in SIS. The three started the chapter to promote more AU student participation in shaping national priorities, Maree said.
"I guess we also figured that if all the Ivy League schools had chapters, why not AU?" Maree said.
Each active chapter contains administrations and policy centers. The national organization, based in Dupont Circle, provides support for regional consortia, which support the administrations of the chapters. The policy centers, supported by their administrations, generate policy papers and ideas, Maree said.
The AU chapter's focus is socioeconomic diversity in higher education and ways to increase the numbers of students from different social and economic backgrounds.
A panel discussion on educational diversity hosted by the chapter in late February featured Director of Multicultural Affairs, Fanta Aw, SOC professors and documentary filmmakers Charlene Gilbert and Louis Massiah, and economics chair and professor John Willoughby, Maree said.
This semester, the chapter seeks to strengthen the progressive networks on a local and regional level through its Partnerships for Progress initiative, Maree said. The group has reached out to area schools like George Washington University and encouraged progressive causes among AU's clubs, he said.
A core group of 15 administrators and 15 to 20 student members comprise the backbone of the chapter. Last year, AU students published five pieces in The Internationalist, a student publication with a readership of approximately 25,000, Maree said. The group's policy centers on International Relations, Economic and Social, and Military and Governmental Affairs meet every week, occasionally joined by members of the faculty advisory board.
"Perhaps no other student group is more aware of the responsibility our campus carries to live up to our title as the most politically active school in the nation," Maree said. "Our members continually contemplate how best to inform, inspire and mobilize the progressive and student movements."
But policy formation is a complex issue, and the Institution recognizes that change is not instantaneous, according to Andrew Cox, the organization's national communications director and a senior at Yale University.
The organization encourages students to submit their policy papers, the best of which are distributed by either the Institution or other publications. Senior fellows, the top policy writers nationally, are given more opportunities and the Institution is currently working to channel the ideas of its six Senior Fellows into blogs and opinion pages, Cox said.
"Being able to get your ideas out there and into the national discourse is the greatest reward," Cox said.
The organization produces a semiannual national student journal, the Roosevelt Review, which is delivered directly to Congress, other government agencies, advocacy groups and think tanks, according to its Web site. Students submit their work to the national editorial board, headed by co-founder Jesse Wolfson, which chooses the best work for publication.
The review, like the organization, is named after Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, according the institution's Web site.
"We have a thing called Roosevelt Syndrome in our organization," Maree said. "Once you meet Roosevelt, you fall in love"
