Students Open Window on Policy World

“Statesmen, Scholars, Students,” reads the tagline for the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, and the first two elements have been evident since the institute’s inception. Undergraduate engagement, however, was somewhat slower in coming. But a group of interested students has made a move to change that.

Calling themselves the Baker Institute Student Forum, they are dedicated to fostering student involvement in public policy through events designed to address the questions and interests of Rice students.

The Baker Institute Student Forum (BISF) was not born full-blown but emerged from the efforts of a couple of informal student groups. One was an essay committee initiated in spring 2002 by Alan Kolodny, then a sophomore. He was soon joined by fellow classmate Jared Hubbard and freshman students Narayan Mulukutla, Dustin Stephens, and Navin Vij. “At the time, a lot of us felt that there wasn’t enough student involvement in the Baker Institute,” Kolodny says. “So we held a forum for students to come and express their feelings about the institute.”

By the end of the semester, the essay committee learned of another group lead by freshman Shawn Leventhal that was promoting a similar agenda. They joined forces with Leventhal and freshman Emery Ellis, and that summer, they met with Baker Institute director Edward Djerejian to propose the idea of a formal student group attached to the institute. Djerejian was very responsive to the idea and offered support and office space, and BISF officially began the following fall semester.

“We initiated the student forum to allow students more access and more involvement with the Baker Institute,” says Kolodny. “The institute had been hosting events for a long time, but there hadn’t been any student involvement in the planning or a student emphasis, and often students weren’t represented in the audience.”

In addition to ensuring student seating, the forum also proposes events. “All our events are done with the institute’s approval,” Kolodny continues. “After they sign off on them, they arrange the funding and logistics and so forth.”

“We started with Thomas Friedman,” says Mulukutla. The event was an open question-and-answer session between Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, and students regarding the world after September 11. Since then, the student forum has hosted about 20 events featuring, among many others, Sir Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador to the United States; Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and chief architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia; James M. Derham, deputy assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs; and Clark T. Randt, Jr., the U.S. ambassador to China.

“We have rigorous debate on every event that we propose,” says Mary Catherine Dillman, a junior who joined the forum in spring 2003. “In addition to considering whether the interest is here at Rice, we’re really concerned about being nonpartisan. We’re also careful to take into account how a particular speaker or event fits in with all the events that we or the Baker Institute have held.” After the members agree on an event, they send a proposal to the group’s faculty advisor, Allen Matusow, who also is the associate director for academic programs for the institute. From there, it goes to Djerejian for final approval.

The student forum also plays other roles within the institute. “Even when we have nothing to do with the formation of an event,” Kolodny says, “they’ll use us as an outreach agency to bring students into the audience.” BISF also hosted a students-only event in conjunction with the Baker Institute’s 10th anniversary celebration held last fall.

In January 2003, the executive committee put out a call for new members, and the application they circulated brought in 48 responses. Two of the criteria in selecting new members were a willingness to commit time and the candidate’s degree of previous involvement in events. The committee also looked for ethnic and gender diversity as well as for a wide range of academic and research interests.

After a lengthy review and interview process, they finally settled on three new members who joined in March: Dillman and sophomores Noorain Khan and Jo Kent. Khan was glad to be asked to participate. “I attended a lot of the events earlier in the year,” she says, “and it was really exciting for me because the Baker Institute and their resources and visitors really drew me to Rice. We’re very fortunate to have the opportunity to attend these kinds of events, but I was really disappointed when there weren’t student-only events or when students didn’t have access to all these events. So I wanted to be a part of this new experience for students. Also, I have a lot of interests, and I thought that I’d like to advance them through exposure to new ideas.”

BISF events also prompted Dillman to apply. “It was an opportunity to get involved and make a difference in the organization and its leadership and what it’s going to do for Rice,” she says. “And I was impressed that all the executive committee members are really interested in the student body and the student forum itself rather than just doing this for personal interest. I think that’s something that’s lacking, unfortunately, in different aspects of politics. But what really pulled me here was the idea of activism in politics and bringing in all different kinds of viewpoints and perspectives on issues.”

Most of BISF’s executive committee members see the organization’s activities applying directly to their educational programs and their plans for the future.

“I’ve always been fascinated by policy and politics,” says Kolodny, who is a political science major. “My dream is to be a public servant one day. The student forum has helped satisfy my hunger for a political environment where we talk politics and put on politically oriented events.”

“You learn a lot about teamwork and leadership skills,” says Dillman, a triple major in sociology, policy studies, and anthropology. “I intend to go to grad school for a PhD in sociology, and I’m really interested in how public policy reflects different social values and affects different social institutions.”

A political science major, Khan believes her involvement in the committee and the events held by the forum have taught her a lot. “I’m getting a better perspective on the policy world,” she says, “and I’m even learning skills such as events planning and logistics that will be really useful in whatever I do in the future. One of the exciting things about this group is that it’s student run, and we check ourselves when we debate issues or when we decide we’re going to have an event and work through the logistics. It’s amazing to see that we’ve grown enough in every way that we’re able to function like this.”

Mulukutla, who plans to go to medical school, is an exception in a group where political science and policy studies majors predominate. “Policy stuff affected me, but being a biology major, I never really thought about it,” he says. “The things that you learn in a group like this, though, are not the kinds of things you learn in a classroom. We meet and listen to actual dignitaries or people in the media who have influence in the system, and they’re giving us a first-hand look at the way the world works. I like to keep my horizons broad and stay in tune with what’s going on in the world.”

BISF members are quick to acknowledge the support the Baker Institute has shown their nascent organization. “Really, I can’t say enough,” Kolodny says. “We’ve had all these speakers and events with meals and things that have cost significant amounts of money, and the institute has been exceptionally supportive.” Dillman agrees. “There’s no way a student organization this young would be able to have the reputation on its own to attract the kind of speakers that we’ve been fortunate enough to have,” she says. “It’s only by our association with the Baker Institute that we’ve had enough political capital to attract these people.”

Support such as this has made the committee optimistic about the future of the organization. “The institute will continue to maintain the integrity of the group and foster it both economically and politically by helping bring speakers,” Kolodny maintains, and Mulukutla says that the committee is actively laying the foundation for the group’s future. “During our meetings, we devote time to establishing guidelines for administration, selecting new members, and so on.”

While backing from the Baker Institute and internal organization are both important for the organization, student support is critical. But Dillman doesn’t see that as a problem. “We have a great outpouring of student interest,” she says. “I’m really optimistic and excited about where this is heading. After we graduate, it’ll be interesting to see where BISF is in 10 years.” Kolodny echoes those sentiments. “A number of students have approached me asking about the application process. By maintaining our selectivity, I hope that we’ll be able to promote a continuity of excellence.”

Khan sees yet another aspect of the group’s future potential. “Our students ask really challenging questions,” she says, “and I look forward to seeing the student forum establish such a reputation among speakers that speakers actually want to come here.”

Considering how much the organization has done in the past year and a half, one might think the group content to slow down, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

“There are so many things that we can do,” Khan says, “and that’s really exciting.”

For more information, visit http://www.rice.edu/projects/baker/studentforum/index.html.

—Christopher Dow