The 2008 election showed the dynamic power students have to sway an election as we turned out in record numbers. It was nice to see us fulfill our physical duty by doing what we were asked by the candidates: vote. However, it would have been even better to see us go beyond this one action and demand a more intellectual participation in American politics. Sure, it is not like either candidate asked young people to submit policy ideas on nuclear disarmament, financial regulation, or climate change. This doesn’t even happen at a local level. The Eugene City Council and the mayor’s office do not seek our advice when developing policy around downtown redevelopment or spending stimulus dollars on climate-friendly projects.
In early 2005, students at Stanford and Yale Universities decided to challenge the role young people play in the political process. By creating the Roosevelt Institution, these students believed that they possessed the resources and intellectual capacity to research pressing political issues and write solutions to these problems. The institution has now ballooned to over 7,000 student members nationwide where individual campuses manage their own policy think tanks. Students belonging to a campus chapter generally write policy solutions for local issues, but are also given the opportunity (through the national office in Washington, D.C.) to publish policy and research journals on a number of national topics of concern.
Several students at the University have been working together to create a Roosevelt Chapter on our campus. We believe that intellectual prowess exists here and once students are given an outlet and resources to effect political change, they will take action. By creating a vibrant chapter at the University, we hope to add to the Western Region and increase our ability to network, share policy ideas, and achieve victories throughout the West Coast. We believe that students are bright and crafty enough to create local and national policy that we can lobby on and attempt to have implemented. We no longer want to canvass, phone bank, and hang posters. We want to share our ideas with politicians and the local media. If you share our vision, please join our chapter this Sunday at 3 p.m. in Knight Library room 342.