Randolph-MacOn College issued the following announcement on Jan. 27
Barring traffic, the Virginia General Assembly building is approximately 23 minutes away from Randolph-Macon. Although it is so close and accessible, few Virginians take the time to travel there and advocate for the legislation they want to see. Professor of Political Science Rich Meagher is working to change that with his J-term class, Virginia Politics in Action.
While navigating the delicate balance between Zoom fatigue and the quick pace of the J-term semester, Meagher and his 12 students have dedicated themselves to diving into Virginia state policy and how they as citizens can be agents for change.
“They get to learn about legislative process and advocacy,” said Meagher. “They really get a firsthand experience with it all.”
This is the fourth J-term during which Meagher has taught this course, modeled after a program from Brandeis University called the Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT). The class provides students not only an in-depth look into how Virginia legislature works but also gives them the opportunity to be hands-on in the process. Students research and prepare to argue for a real bill that is currently pending in the General Assembly. The class culminates in taking a trip to the General Assembly to speak with actual delegates and interns to lobby for their cause.
“I certainly don’t grade students on whether or not their bills pass,” said Meagher with a smile. “There’s just so much other stuff going on. I grade based on their ability to tell a story, to research the bill and write their reports.”
This year is especially interesting due to work that Meagher did this past fall in his version of Honors 300, the required project-based learning course for Honors Program students. In that class, students developed the idea for a bill that increases penalties for cars that don’t move over for emergency vehicles. Spencer Willet ’23 (Political Science major, Religious Studies minor) took that class and is now working to pass the bill to the next stage in the process. “Utilizing the bill developed by the last class gives us even more motivation to advocate for its passage,” he said.
Meagher also uses this course as an opportunity to teach the class about team-building and professional groupwork skills. Incorporating Gantt charts and assignment contracts, each group not only has to figure out the details of their bill, but how they will coexist and work together throughout the month.
These advocates-in-training recently visited the General Assembly to speak with legislators to make their case for their bills and why they deserve the votes. Some made appointments, while others played it by ear, approaching anyone who expressed interest in listening to their cause. This put the students’ conversational skills to the test, to see how well they can tell a story or run through talking points on the fly. Though delegates couldn't outright agree to give them their vote, the efforts students go through to convince them can prove to be an influential experience for legislators in the long run.
Madison Brown '24 (Political Science major, Journalism and Music double-minor) was able to have one such personal experience with a politician, Delegate Danica Roem of Virginia's 13th District, and it left quite an impression on her.
"The class has forced me to reevaluate my preconceptions of how one ‘gets into’ or influences the political system," Brown said. "I'd never imagined that I could simply walk into a legislator’s office and demand an audience for myself; to not only have met such a famous and historically significant delegate as Danica Roem in person but to have her take a real interest in my personal story was confounding, and the experience has given me a new outlook on how representative democracy could work, if done right."
To Meagher, this class serves more than just teaching students about the legislative process. It provides a tangible example of how accessible state and local government is to the average person, and how citizens can effect change using methods beyond voting.
“Politicians are not these wealthy elites who are inaccessible,” said Meagher, “They’re people in our communities, and it’s very easy to go down to the General Assembly and talk to them."
If students can take away anything from this class, it’s that state politics, especially in Virginia, aren’t as mystifying as they’re made out to be. It’s just a matter of knowing who to talk to—and how.
Original source can be found here.
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