Term Project Topics, Spring 2007

• Be consistent with your interests and concerns without being too narrow or idiosyncratic. Perhaps your major or your strengths can inform your public policy topic.
• Make sure that you can actually implement the topic: Can you get the research materials? Local and state issues may attract you, but the smaller the area, usually the less available. You can interview local public figures, however, and use newspapers with care.
• Check out my web page, SearchLight, which I have created to guide the use of the Internet, pre-Google. I will demonstrate the site in class.
• You are encouraged to use the Internet for your research, and this will be explained in the first of our two computer lab sessions. I will suggest a binder format that has worked well in the past and will bring examples to class.
• Simulate playing the role of a staff policy advisor to, say, a U.S. Senator and provide a policy brief on a public issue. Be wary of narrow advocacy, taking a broad, practical posture. I will oblige by assuming the role of the Senator, Governor, or President.
• Group projects are encouraged, but we must establish guidelines and agree on a division of labor.