UNC students who spend the spring ’08 semester in Washington, D.C., will get a first-hand look at the people and places responsible for shaping U.S. policy on major issues, both at home and abroad.
It’s the first time that the College of Arts and Sciences’ Burch Field Research Seminars in domestic and foreign policy are being offered in the same semester. This spring marks the return of the domestic policy seminar, which hasn’t been offered in several years, according to Daniel Gitterman, associate professor of public policy and director of undergraduate studies for the department. The seminars are offered through the Honors Program; each seminar conveys 12 hours of academic credit.
“It offers a real opportunity for students from each program to interact with each other, and the chance to bring both groups together once a month to explore a set of cross-cutting issues such as trade, homeland security and international labor issues,” Gitterman said.
The Burch Field Research Seminars are supported by a gift to the College from alumnus Lucius Burch III.
Students from both Washington seminars participate in separate day-long colloquia led by faculty instructors every Thursday at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, with a joint meeting once a month. They are placed in internships for course credit where they apply what they’re learning in class on the job. Students live together in apartments located in historic Capitol Hill neighborhoods that are managed by the Washington Intern Student Housing Foundation.
This is the fourth year that William Itoh has taught the Burch foreign policy seminar for UNC. He is a career foreign service officer, former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, former executive secretary of the National Security Council at the White House, and now director of Washington International Programs at UNC.
Itoh says offering both seminars at the same time will increase Carolina’s presence in Washington, D.C.
“Students will learn quite a bit from each other, and it will make the experience even more meaningful,” Itoh said. “Increasingly as you look at current events, domestic and foreign policy are closely intertwined. The students will have an interesting perspective because we’ll be in a presidential election year with foreign policy issues at the forefront — with China, international trade, human rights, the Middle East and the War in Iraq.”
Itoh’s foreign policy students also participate in off-site excursions. Last spring, students visited the Thai and Bangladesh embassies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the World Bank, Voice of America and a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. They took the train to New York City for a tour of the United Nations. Itoh also brings in guest speakers and arranges visits with UNC alums who work in Washington. For instance, students met with Wes Egan, the former Ambassador to Jordan, and Mari Tolliver, coordinator for Crisis Management Support at the U.S. Department of State.
Last spring, students had internships at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Bangladesh and Thai embassies, the Foreign Service Institute at the U.S. Department of State and the Washington International Trade Association, among other sites.
David Podoff, an adjunct professor of public policy, will be teaching the domestic policy seminar for the first time this year. Podoff has worked for the government for 30 years. He previously served as minority staff director and chief economist for the Senate Committee on Finance and was a member of the Social Security Advisory Board. He was also the principal architect of the Moynihan-Kerrey bill on Social Security, introduced by Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Robert Kerrey of Nebraska.
Podoff hopes students get an insider’s look at how U.S. domestic policy is shaped in Washington.
“A lot goes on behind the scenes, and when you know that, you have a very different interpretation. A lot of things happen that will be easy to understand and explain if you know the inside background,” said Podoff, who will introduce students to a range of public policy issues including Social Security, education, immigration and health care. “The whole idea is to make it topical, but to give students the foundation to analyze those topics.”
Students will likely visit the Social Security Administration office and spend a day on Capitol Hill with members and staff of the Senate Finance Committee.
Itoh said the goal of both seminars is to expose students to a broad range of government issues and to teach them to think independently about them.
“We want them to develop a healthy degree of skepticism, to stimulate their curiosity so they can become critical thinkers about issues that are important,” Itoh said. “These are the future leaders of our country.”
Itoh and Podoff are interested in reaching more Carolina alums who have Washington experiences to share with students either as guest speakers or internship hosts. Contact them at itoh@email.unc.edu or dpodoff@yahoo.com.
