A group of Northwestern students are writing more than papers; they have also drafted policies for Chicago and Evanston.
The NU chapter of the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, the student-run branch of a national think tank, works with local organizations and lawmakers to develop policies that aim to solve issues such as unemployment and youth violence.
“We engage with local community groups and even local government and really learn the issues they’re facing,” chapter co-President and Weinberg junior Andy Hobaugh said.
The Center for Energy and the Environment, for which Hobaugh serves as acting co-director, is one of three branches of the Institute, along with Poverty and Urban Issues and Economic Development.
In addition to drafting a tax on shopping bags, these three centers have studied the rate at which criminals return to jail after serving their sentences and put together panel discussions and media presentations in the three years since the institute has come to NU, Hobaugh said.
The Center for Economic Development created a program to provide job training to students in Chicago high schools, including Evanston Township High School. Employees from local companies trained and informed students about job opportunities and sometimes hired those students as part-time employees.
“Whatever we do in Chicago, we try to bring to Evanston,” said Vijay Singh, Weinberg senior and director of the Center for Economic Policy.
Singh also worked with the new NU student group Lending for Evanston and Northwestern Development to help provide microfinance loans to Evanston businesses. The Center for Economic Policy tries to identify areas with high unemployment rates and lower those rates, Singh said.
Along with its work on broad community issues, the institute is working to create a “sustainable and responsible” endowment fund for NU, Singh said.
The institute does not always work directly with lawmakers. It is sometimes hard to get access to aldermen and other local politicians, so the organization often works with local organizations, Singh said.
The bag tax policy is one such example. The institute worked with Citizens for a Greener Evanston to research and write the policy. The two groups then presented it to Ald. Coleen Burrus (9th), who plans to submit the proposal to the Evanston City Council.
“We’ve been successful in the sense that we’ve been able to drum up a lot of interest,” Singh said.
Outside of Evanston, the institute hosted events throughout the past year to discuss youth violence and how to effectively engage lawmakers, among other subjects. The events have been attended by politicians such as state Rep. Robyn Gabel (18th) and Democratic senatorial candidate Alexi Giannoulias, Hobaugh said.
The Center for Energy and the Environment partnered with Al Raby School for Community and Environment, a charter school in Chicago with a green focus. The institute will host students from the school to show them what NU has to offer in terms of environmental organizations and the benefits of a college experience.
The institute aims to train its members to create effective policy, said Alix Hallen, Weinberg senior and co-director of the Center for Energy and the Environment. Members serve organizations that may not otherwise know how to go about writing a policy that is relevant and effective.
“Students have a greater voice than just volunteering,” said Hallen.
