The Roosevelt Institution
ADVISORY: Students gather with community leaders to share ideas on New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS, November 13—The Tulane University chapter of the Roosevelt Institution, the national network of campus-based student think tanks, is bringing together students from across Louisiana and the South to examine community development policies in post-Katrina New Orleans. The Collaborative Conference on Community Development, held on December 1st at Tulane University, will bring together university students from New Orleans and elsewhere, development experts, and policy leaders to consider the challenges facing New Orleans and the rest of America’s communities. However, the conference seeks to do far more than educate students. The discussions will focus on students’ ideas—Roosevelt’s leaders will provide training to make formal policy papers from the students’ ideas, and the best of those papers will be given to local, state, and federal legislators in sit-down meetings between Roosevelt students and legislative staffers. Eric Couper, the coordinator of the conference at Tulane, said, “As a Tulane student from Baton Rouge living in New Orleans, I am excited for the possibility to bring together students who know all too well the challenges that New Orleans faces, to discuss ideas and policy that affect its future. This is finally a way for me to harness the resources of my fellow students and bring those ideas to the forefront of public discourse. Picking up trash and rebuilding houses has been very satisfying for our students, but we are able to do so much more.”
Discussions, panels, and workshops at the conference will focus on students’ ideas in three areas: education, affordable housing, and sustainable development in New Orleans and elsewhere. The students organizing the conference have also organized trips to local sites to witness the development already taking place in New Orleans. These on-site engagements, like the one at Sophie B. Wright Middle School, will offer students insight into the problems confronting local leaders.
“I’m incredibly excited for the outcome,” said Lauren Elliott, director of the Tulane chapter of the Roosevelt Institution. “We’ve got members coming from all over the nation, and we know that on-site engagement will enrich the experience. New Orleans is certainly in the spotlight when it comes to the future of community development, and we’re excited for students to take the opportunity to affect the process.”
At the center of the conference will be small group discussions between 5 or 6 students, a policy maker, and a community leader. These discussions will challenge all participants to analyze problems creatively and share knowledge with one another to accomplish a common goal: a better and more prosperous New Orleans.
The Roosevelt Institution is the premiere organization of student thinkers dedicated to infusing the public discourse with their ideas. Approximately seven thousand members from all over the country conduct policy research on pressing issues, and students at Roosevelt’s national office connect those ideas to the policy process through illuminating conferences, presentations, and publications. Roosevelt believes that students make up the ideal source for the progressive ideas that will shape the future of their generation.