The Rockefeller Center's Policy Research Shop has received a $300,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to fund undergraduate research, the College announced Thursday. The policy shop provides a small number of undergraduate students with the opportunity to do in-depth legislative research that is subsequently presented to state legislatures in New Hampshire and Vermont.
"The shop is important because it's one of the few opportunities on campus to make an impact in the real world," participant Maia Fedyszyn '07 said. "Our research is applied at the state level. People really do use the research that we're providing them."
The grant will be used in two ways, Associate Director of Curricular and Research Programs Ronald Shaiko said. The program at Dartmouth will expand so that more students become involved in issues concerning state and local governments, and it may also expand to other colleges.
Currently, participants start their research projects during the Fall term as part of an introductory public policy course. They then have the option of continuing to research during the winter and spring, an option that more than three quarters of students pursue.
According to Shaiko, the grant will allow more students to be part of the policy shop; a second postdoctoral fellow will be added to the shop's staff so that more projects can be mentored. A new class called Policy Analysis and Local Governance will be introduced to expand the scope of projects to the local level, and the program will also try to assume a larger role during sophomore summer.
The Policy Research Shop will also be introduced to other liberal arts colleges in states which have part-time, understaffed legislatures, Shaiko said, citing Colby College and the College of William and Mary as potential candidates for the program.
"The Ford Foundation found it attractive because it's a model that can be replicated across the country," Shaiko said. "Or at least in the 17 states that have part-time legislatures."
Students working in the program have already seen results from their projects. One research paper presented by students on renewable portfolio standards -- policies that mandate states to produce a certain amount of their energy from renewable sources -- contributed to the revision of a bill in the New Hampshire state legislature, explained program director Scott Carrell.
For undergraduate students, testifying in front of state legislatures is a rare opportunity, Nik Nartowicz '07 said.
"I testified in front of the Vermont State Legislature on the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act on the curriculum," Nartowicz said. "It's really amazing to have a group of state legislators listen and take my position as authoritative."
The success of the policy shop has already attracted the attention of universities seeking to model programs after it. A political science professor at the University of Iowa had contacted the program while in the early stages of developing something similar, Carrell said.
Though other undergraduate programs offer similar opportunities for legislative research, the program is unique because participants do not advocate specific policies. Rather, they present impartial research to help legislators make informed decisions.
The Ford Foundation approached Andrew Samwick, director of the Rockefeller Center, concerning the possibility of a grant in the Fall term of 2006, Shaiko said. The program submitted a proposal for funding in October 2006, and heard this April that it had received the grant.
Matt Dunne, a former Democratic state senator from Vermont, founded the program in the fall of 2005. Since then, the program has been aided by grants from the Surdna Foundation, the Bay and Paul Foundations, Lintilhac Foundation and the Institute for Security Technology Studies.
