Roosevelt | Think tank mobilizes

Joshua Murphy, executive director for the UNLV chapter of the Roosevelt Institution, voiced his frustration that more students did not attend the student think tank’s unveiling presentation Sunday morning.

“People have been putting their blood, sweat and tears into this, and only 20 people showed up,” he said near the end of the hour-long presentation, which introduced the purpose and set-up of the institution.

Murphy said he wants this organization to get to the point where the general populace hears of a Roosevelt event and comes to support it in large numbers.

Murphy started the think tank at UNLV not only because of his frustration with the current politics in the country, but also because he said the growth and movement of politics in Las Vegas calls for younger generations to put their hands in as well.

“If you don’t like the laws, why don’t you write them the way you think they should be?” he questioned the small audience, which consisted mostly of students already involved in the Institution, as well as students wanting to join and private citizens willing to help the group. “Why don’t we start getting the world ready for when we get there? That’s what (Roosevelt Institution members) do.”

Murphy enumerated the progress Roosevelt has made nationwide, with more than 5,000 member students, 146 universities involved and 66 established chapters in two years.

The UNLV chapter, he said, has been getting much attention from national headquarters, possible financial donors and the media.

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently wrote of the chapter’s progress and said they were waiting to see what would come out of Las Vegas, Murphy said.

He said national pollsters, aides and lobbyists look to Vegas for population selection because of the greater diversity and growth. “We’re gonna be the focal point of the southwest.”

As far as actually having a voice among policy-makers, who are the Institution’s key audience, Murphy said the UNLV members are in competition with top schools, but they are just as capable of getting their policies published and discussed as Ivy League students.

“We’re competing against people from Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Brown,” he said, adding that UNLV students have represented at conferences and that politicians are “mesmerized that we have something to say.”

Since the chapter has received non-profit organization status, Murphy said it would be easy to get funding from corporations, especially in Las Vegas from the gaming industry.

He said Boyd Gaming and Harrah’s are waiting for the organization to get more established and start getting out policy ideas so they can help with funding.

Roosevelt Institution chapters at other schools have already seen success, especially the flagship school, Stanford.

Murphy said seven questions on the California ballot during mid-term elections came from Stanford students trying to change policy. He said four initiatives have passed and become law in the state.

The program called “Teach for America” was also started by a student in the Roosevelt Institution, he said.

The other speakers at the presentation encouraged students to spread the word about the organization, so enough people are involved to make actual change.

“I’m not trying to say it’s a state of emergency, but it’s hard to get this done with 20 people,” Varun Piplani, policy director, said. “So far it’s all been talk.”

Piplani said it’s harder to rile students up on this campus than some of the other schools that have active chapters.

“At Yale and Stanford, they cultivate an environment that’s conducive to education – we have to create that here,” he said. “You have to get your voice out, and this is the first step.”

Murphy said it should not be that difficult, considering the resources UNLV offers that would help the students do research and write policy.

Murphy is director of the Center on Water Resource Management, Sustainability and Urban Growth and said UNLV is the only school in the country that can tackle these issues because of its programs and location.

The UNLV chapter offers seven centers so far, including this one, from which students can choose according to their interests and then work on policy for that interest. The other centers are education and learning; environment and energy; ethics; health and human rights; international relations and foreign policy and race, gender and diversity.

The institution, according to Murphy, hopes to become established and put together all the policy writing from students for publication. At the debut presentation, he brought along copies of the Roosevelt Review for summer 2006, in which students had written for such topics as health care, social services, conservation, AIDS and women’s rights.

Murphy, who works at the Springs Reserve, invited his boss, Marcel Parent, to the event.

He said he was very surprised and blown away by the elevated level of writing and research.

“The desire is much greater than the will,” Parent said of Murphy’s frustration that more students did not attend the debut. “I’ll take 20 passionate, committed volunteers over 1,000 wishy-washy people.”

Kathryn, a private citizen who attended the debut and did not want to give her last name because of her line of work, asked what private citizens who want to contribute, but are not students, can do.

Murphy said professors and citizens could join the advisory board to help students think of ideas. He also said anyone who wants to change a policy can sit down with the directors and students and get ideas from him or her as well.

“I think this generation needs to start working a little bit harder than what they have,” Kathryn said.

Crystal Boyd, director for the Center on Race, Gender and Diversity, said she is more optimistic about the future of Roosevelt on campus.

“We’re a meeting of the minds that has an interest in politics,” she said. “We’re going to be the hippies of our generation with fewer hallucinogens.”

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