Students looking to participate in and engage with domestic politics will now have a new opportunity to do so, thanks to a new student group that has emerged out of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service.
The Institute for Public Citizenship (IPC), established last month by sophomore Eric Peckham, aims to create a nonpartisan community for students interested in pursuing domestic politics and public policy.
Peckham, a Tisch Scholar, decided to create the IPC as part of an individual project each scholar is asked to head. He hopes to create an on−campus community for students interested in policy issues in part through social events such as a State of the Union address viewing party in January, but also through more traditional political initiatives, like encouraging voter registration and bringing high−profile public policy leaders to campus for small−group discussions.
The group is a reincarnation of a previous Tisch initiative with a similar name that disbanded in 2008, according to Tisch College Director and Associate Dean Nancy Wilson.
Peckham said his revived group was more focused on providing local internships and encouraging engagement in national politics as opposed to state and local politics.
The IPC will encourage student activism in public policy partly by helping members obtain part−time research internships with the Massachusetts State House, an effort Wilson believed would be valuable in the long−term for students.
"We had many students leverage those internships for jobs and for honors theses," Wilson said.
Freshman Jacob Wessel, president of civic engagement for the IPC, said the group will collaborate with other public policy and active citizenship groups like Tufts Votes to further its goals.
The IPC plans to host discussion series based around specific topics. This semester, for example, topics will include the role of Islam in Europe and the relationship between the White House and members of the media, Peckham said.
"All the discussion series are small roundtable discussions. They're informal, for the most part off the record. So those will really be an opportunity for people to come in and just say what they think … giving students the opportunity to sit down with a leader in public policy to share his or her experience about getting elected, working your way up through government bureaucracy [and] stuff like that," he said.
Peckham said small−group sessions are more beneficial than large, high−profile lectures for students wishing to engage with policymakers
"Usually, when a high−profile leader comes to campus ... if you're lucky, you get to shake their hand or ask them one question at the end," he said. "By having a smaller discussion group — 20 to 25 people — you really get a lot more out of it."
Sophomore Jameelah Morris, an IPC member, said the group will host former White House press secretaries as well as news analysts as speakers at the discussion centered on the White House and the press.
Morris said the IPC−sponsored discussions are meant to foster a conversation on campus and educate students about specific topics pertaining to current issues in politics.
"We're bringing people who have experience in those fields in the hope that students in the future can have intellectual discussions about those topics."
Wilson said the Tisch College provided initial financial support and strategic advisement for the IPC, as it does for other on−campus public policy student groups.
"We typically don't try to hold on to them," she said. "Our idea is to nurture them, provide support where it's needed, and then let people fly."
