College Leaders

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 26-Thursday, June 24
Recorded by: Katie Hunter, Virginia Tech

Today was probably the most anticipated day of our Sorensen experience. It was the day when all of our hard work came to fruition because we presented our policy proposals to a very accomplished panel. The panel consisted of Creigh Deeds, David Toscano, Connie Jorgensen, Mary Loose Deviney, Dr. Steve Bragaw and Bob Gibson. Of course we were all so nervous to present and show our work to these people! But no nerves were necessary because the panel members were all very hospitable.

After watching the presentations, I realize how creative and thoughtful the CLP Class of 2010 really is! During the course of this month, each group has worked very hard to make plausible policy proposals, and today the hard work paid off. Each group was professional and did a great job in conveying their policy ideas to everyone in the audience. The CLP Class of 2010 definitely set a high precedent. The Class of 2011 will have big shoes to fill!

Now that our policy proposals have been written and presented, we are officially finished with the program until graduation. I believe I can speak for our entire class and say that the Sorensen Institute College Leaders Program has been a incredible opportunity. I know that I personally learned so much about my political views and myself. My knowledge of government and politics has also been enriched. I am so glad to have been a part of this great program!

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 25-Wednesday, June 23
Recorded by: Ryan Huff, George Mason University

Today as our last several days at Sorensen wound down, we had the opportunity to complete Day 2 of our budget game. We were once again split into our two separate groups: the House of Delegates and the Senate. Once the House was able to find an unoccupied room, both groups were able to get down to work by first selecting their chair.

Unlike the previous budget game, both chambers were facing a very unfavorable economy with a deficit of $1.4 billion. As we began looking through the options of spending, reductions, and revenue that Professor Bragaw had prepared for us, we began to realize this would be no easy task. Anytime you put people of different backgrounds in the same room there will always be differing opinions, and today was no exception. Although there were some tense moments, both chambers were able to work their way through the process to present a respectable budget.

This was only the first step however. After a working lunch, the House and Senate to combined to form two conference committees. The goal of the conference committees was to attempt to merge the House version and Senate version into one bill. Because the two bodies had very different ideologies, the budgets had several distinct differences that would require a compromise. Luckily both conference committees were able to piece together parts of their bills to present two quality bills to the full floor of the Assembly. After some brief debate, both the House and Senate voted to approve Budget A, thus concluding our session with a balanced budget.

The budget game was a great way to learn the art of political compromise and show exactly what people are capable of when working together. After a long day in the classroom, it was time to head back to Bice House to prepare for our mock interviews. Each of the five policy groups had a chance to pitch their presentation to the youth staff members and got some quality advice that will no doubt help when presenting to the panel.

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 24-Tuesday, June 22
Recorded by: Elisabeth Maddrell, Mary Baldwin College

Today we took a trip to the Capitol! We were all on the bus at 6:45 a.m. and all asleep by 6:46. After battling the rush hour traffic, we made it to Richmond around 8:30 a.m. Our first speaker at the Virginia State Capitol was Tucker Martin, the Communications Director for Governor McDonnell. He shared some entertaining stories of damage control, including the week that the thesis story broke. Then Doug Domenech, the Secretary of Natural Resources, spoke about his typical day and his job responsibilities. Following Mr. Domenech was Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. He spoke about a range of issues, including the role of his office in Virginia and why he believes that the national health care plan is categorically unconstitutional.

Just as the morning started to drag and our stomachs told us that lunchtime was approaching, Delegate Bill Janis came into the room. He immediately made us change seats based on where we went to high school. He made sure that those of us who went to out-of-state schools were welcomed, and he told them that they made the right decision coming to Virginia, because after all, Virginia is the best! He kept us engaged with funny one-liners such as, “A citizen legislature is a damn expensive hobby!” (in reference to the pay received by the legislature in relation to the work put in). When discussing the powerful role of a judge during a bench trial, he said, “Judges are the closest things to God on earth. One man decides if you go see Old Sparkie.” He kept us laughing, but also got us to think critically about the role of government and what the exact implications of altering the one-term governorship would be for the balance of power in Virginia government.

After lunch the group traveled to the Virginia State Police Academy. We were welcomed by Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, the Superintendent of the Virginia State Police. He gave us a broad overview of the average duties of his office and of his state troopers. When asked what the most moving experience he has had during his years as a police officer, he stated that the Virginia Tech shootings was one of the most tragic experiences he has had, but it was truly life-changing. However, when asked what has been the most challenging aspect of his job, he didn’t say 9/11 or the DC sniper; rather, it had been recent cuts in the budget by millions! He said doing the same job with billions less is not an easy job! After he spoke to us, we were able to experience a little more of the Police Academy experience. First, we saw a demonstration of the power of the canine units and one dog in particular. Our demonstrator suited up in a protective 60-pound suit and showed us what it is like to be attacked by a police-trained German shepherd. Needless to say I would not have wanted to be the person in that suit, for the obvious reason, but also because it was about 100 degrees outside! We were then led on a tour throughout the Academy.

But by far the most exciting and nerve-wracking experience of the day was the MILO. The MILO is a program that is meant to simulate real situations that the police are trained to deal with. Many of the situations involved a violent scene, and you were armed with a gun and had to do your best to react to the situation as though you were the responding police officer. Of course the guns were not loaded with bullets, but equipped with a laser. When the gun was fired, the laser registered with the computer operating system, and after the simulation the instructor could replay the situation and see if you hit the assailant or not. Some of us needed to shoot someone in the simulation, but we all missed! It is lucky the safety of Virginia doesn’t lie in the hands of the Sorensen CLP Class of 2010, otherwise things could get ugly!

The Police Academy was our last stop for the day and we returned back to Bice for a tasty Moroccan dinner!

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 23-Monday, June 21
Recorded by: Josh Hetzler, Liberty University

Today was Monday and therefore really hard to wake up and get going after the crazy Father’s Day weekend. It was our last day of the “Thoughtful Citizen” with Dr. Bragaw. It’s also the start of our last week at Sorensen. It’s an odd feeling, really. It’s just gotten to that point where everyone is very comfortable with everyone else, and we’re used to it all now, but then we will all go our separate ways in another week.

In class we talked about the distinctions between private and public tasks as something to consider in public policy. We also broke up into our policy groups to read some articles. One was about some of the common fallacies often overlooked in decision making. We looked introspectively at our own strengths and weaknesses, as well as what they were as far as our groups were concerned. It was a real eye-opener, and I think we all got a lot out of it.

We then had a rousing class debate about SOL’s and their history in Virginia. Who knew 3rd grade history tests could be so hotly debated and controversial? Bring it up to a bunch of Virginia Poly-Sci kids sometime, and you’ll see. Our policy groups are tightening down, or at least the Economy group is. It’s crunch time, and we have to pull it all together in a very short amount of time. It’s going to be late-nighters for the rest of the week, making sure these things run smoothly and that we’re all on the same page. We’re anticipating a tough panel review on Thursday, so we’re preparing well. Tomorrow we leave for Richmond – EARLY. Late nights, early mornings, long days, crazy times, seven days a week–that’s Sorensen. But hey, it’s all been worth it.  

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 20-Friday, June 18
Recorded by: Lena Morrill, Sweet Briar College

It was a busy day on Friday. We had to finished our first draft of our policy proposal. My group is public safety and we are working on making more detailed guidelines for the Family Life curriculum in regards to teen dating violence. With relationships starting earlier and earlier, the rates of violence among tweens and teens has gone up over the past few years. We are taking a proactive approach so that hopefully, by exposing and educating sooner, dating violence will be recognized sooner and stopped. All of the groups had mock interviews with Bob Gibson in the afternoon. The interviews definitely helped all of us realize the weaknesses and strengths of our proposals and arguments. My group at least will be taking time this weekend to fill in the gaps in our argument.

Class was lively today with our discussions of the readings and making connections. Dr. Bragaw, in usual fashion, managed to find a clip of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" that related wonderfully to our discussion of policy problems and solutions. I was really excited that it had many in class talking and asking questions.

We ended the evening heading to "Fridays at Five" on the Downtown Mall, had dinner with friends and ended the night hanging out in the hall, talking and watching TV. It is dawning on us that this is going to end in less than a week, so we are trying to get everything in now!

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 19-Thursday, June 17
Recorded by: Brittany Gentry, Old Dominion University

As we piled into the classroom, we had barely planted our bums into our seats when we were greeted with the challenging and mischievous smile of Professor Bagraw as he stood boldly next to his word document projected on the screen ahead of us. Our names were split within two categories: HOUSE of DELEGATES and SENATE. We then knew what was awaiting our time and effort for the remainder of the morning....BUDGET GAME!!! Thirty minutes of game rules and dynamics and one handout later, CLP 2010 split into a bicameral body.

The scenario painted a picture of a healthy, thriving economy in the Commonwealth of Virginia which presented us with an anticipated surplus of $240 million. The House delegates were members of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee and were up for re-election in the same year. The Senate members were part of the Senate Finance Committee and had substantially more freedom to make decisions because they were not facing re-election for another two years.

We began by selecting a committee chair and a recorder, then by adopting rules for the decision-making process. Each body decided to tackle the budgeting process with separate strategies and approaches while encountering the same difficulties. The House first looked at Cuts with the logic that forming an idea about what cuts the body agrees to make will give a more accurate amount for Spending. The Senate took the opposite approach, spending first. Time was short, and the aroma of Chick-fil-A filled the air. The budgets were balanced and finalized with the House ending with a $9 million deposit in the Rainy Day Fund and the Senate with a 0-0 balance. We then divided again into two more groups comprised of a mixture of delegates and senators to negotiate our budgets with each other. Finally, the motion to adjourn for lunch was made and the groups darted after the food.

After lunch, we broke from the budget game for our only speakers for the day from McGuire Woods Consulting. Both speakers lectured the class on the importance of the core Sorensen values and how they came to be involved in their prospective careers. William Pace asked his infamous two-part question ending with his request for an explanation of why each speaker chose their specific party affiliations. Katelyn Temple and Ramon Gamble went for the bold inquiries about internships and jobs, giving the entire class, including our speakers, a good laugh for the afternoon.

We then reverted back to the budget exercise and split into our second groups. Post debate and negotiations, the final results ranged from $9 million to $14 million excess to be deposited into the rainy day fund. Professor Bagraw tied up the class with discussion over the budget game while relating the experiences we had during the decision-making process to the concepts and theories within our readings for the day. We came to one solid conclusion: the Sorensen College Leaders are one rocking group of budget professionals!

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 18-Wednesday June 16
Reported by: William Pace, Hampden-Sydney College

Yesterday was an incredible day that I will never forget since I love going to Capitol Hill.  We went to Washington D.C. to meet both U.S. Senators and five of the eleven U.S. Representatives from Virginia.  Since the Sorensen staff thought that we have done an amazing job thus far in our two and a half weeks together, they decided to give us a break for this morning.

Some of us slept until lunch, but I woke up at 8:30 a.m. instead of 6:30 a.m. as I usually would.  Instead of sleeping, I spent my free time catching up on my assigned reading and analyzing the results of the special elections in the 26th and 27th House Districts that saw Tony Wilt and Roxann Robinson win their respective elections last night.  Turnout for the 26th District Special Election was 25% while turnout for the 27th District Special Election was almost 9%, a large difference between the two.  It interested me that one Special Election for a Delegate seat was fairly high while the other was very low.

We all made it for lunch, even though the lunch arrived a little late, but no worries.  We were entertained during lunch about a friend of the Sorensen Institute being mentioned on the Daily Show.  Shortly after lunch, Joe Stanley, the Director of Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, spoke to us about his time as a Legislative Assistant for former Delegate Frank Hall, his college experiences at Virginia Commonwealth University, and how he became a lobbyist.  I wanted to ask him why he was associated with his political party, since I always ask this question to any speaker.  However, one of my classmates stole the question from me.  Joe Stanley explained “my” question by discussing why he was a progressive.  We enjoyed listening to Joe Stanley.

After his talk, Dr. Bragaw lectured us about efficiency and equality and how both relate to the formulation of public policy. One thing that I learned from Dr. Bragaw's lecture was that although everyone has one equal vote, our votes never result in an equal outcome.  Aspects of life might start as being equal, but it rarely results in an equal outcome.  I believe that it was important for us to understand this concept since we want to aim for equality.

Overall, I am enjoying my time at the College Leaders Program.  I cannot believe that we only have ten days left of this incredible journey.

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 17—Tuesday, June 15
Reported by: Ramon Gamble, Virginia Commonwealth University

“The default setting of American politics is conflict.” This is the message our class was left to think about as our session ended yesterday, and it is the one thought that has been running through my head since then.

Over the last two weeks, my classmates and I have been asked to keep in mind the creed of this program, and to continually contemplate the “core” values of the Sorensen Institute: trust, respect, and civility. And upon graduation, exercise these values to make an attempt to move beyond partisanship. I’ve sat through a little over 40 speakers (It’s incredible how many speakers we’ve been able to hear in only 19 days.), and not one has openly talked about the necessity of conflict in politics. In fact, I can’t recall even one who hasn’t insisted that he or she has persistently aligned themselves with the core values we are being taught to manifest in Sorensen. This is interesting. To echo some of the talk I overheard on our bus, as we were leaving the capital this afternoon, “Isn’t it a little weird that every single speaker we’ve had so far fully supports ‘bi-partisanship,’ yet as soon as you turn on a TV, or read a newspaper, or bring up a blog all you will ever hear is how much these guys are fighting with each other?” Yes. It is weird indeed.

I asked Senator Warner what he thought about the confrontational overtones Madison wove into his contributions to the Federalist Papers, particularly No. 51. His response was typical of our speakers thus far. He verbalized that there must continue to be some kind of combative discourse—for opposition is a healthy and necessary part of legislating. The real problem, he said, “is the 24/7 coverage of the media.” He argued that the media was doing our nation a disservice by solely focusing its lens on cases of inter-party strife, effectively demonically distorting day-to-day politics.

There seems to be a consensus among the politicians we have hosted: “the media is bad,” specifically the “24/7” media—referring primarily to TV. Now, I rarely watch TV, so the blatant anti-TV trolling I’ve experienced has been quite shocking. It generally goes like this: “The availability of an incessant news stream forces media outlets to continually one-up themselves. And the only way to continually catch the attention of viewers is to become increasingly provocative. The increased provocativeness consequently transforms political news into entertainment news. And because politics is reduced to entertainment it is viewed as trivial by the masses.” 

But is it really the media’s fault that our generation can’t seem to be concerned with politics? Who knows? This week we start our “Media 101” class modules. Hopefully Coy can impart some substantial information on this subject.  

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 16—Monday, June 14
Reported by: Chelsea Person, Virginia Commonwealth University

Today I woke up feeling a little groggy.  However, after deciding to wait for some of fellow CLPer’s and taking the “short cut” to class (which involved running up a hill), I felt quite invigorated and ready for the day.

We began with a talk from Dan Lavista from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia. He explained the functions and goals of SHEV and explained how higher education is governed in Virginia. His talk sparked many great questions about funding for higher education and how the budget dollars are allocated. He gave us great insight into how universities and colleges work with the legislature to request funds.

Next the class became much more interactive as we provided each other constructive criticism on body language and staying within time constraints when dealing with the media. April Auger, the Director of Programs here at the Sorensen Institute, was a great last-minute facilitator of our “Media 101” session. She gave us the “Do’s and “Don’ts” when interacting with media. Such tips included “Do Prepare” and “Keep your Cool”. We continued to critique each other as April interviewed us on her “talk show”. This exercise gave us an opportunity to see how we perform under pressure and find ways to improve. The lesson of the day is "Use short and concise statements, stay on point, and don't go over the time allocated."

Lunch followed, and we each engaged ourselves in conversations concerning the progress of our culminating projects, as our literature reviews were due today. We have approached the halfway mark and our projects are coming along great. It's crazy to think we only have two weeks left!

The last part of day ended with Professor Bragaw’s session “The Thoughtful Citizen”. He engaged us in classical political philosophy as we discussed the writings from Aristotle, what it means to be a citizen, and how the definition of citizen is dependent upon the state in which one lives.  The quote, “Justice is rooted in empathy,” caught my attention because it implies that injustice is the teacher of justice, which is pretty deep once you let it sink in. We contemplated the fatal problem in all governments, which, according to Aristotle, is the difficulty in ensuring that rulers act justly.  He advocated education as the key to ensuring just leaders and just citizens. I feel Sorensen has taken on this challenge as they teach us how to lead.  

College Leaders Program Class of 2010
Day 15—Sunday, June 13
Reported by: Elizabeth Eckert, Lynchburg College

After a week of early mornings, we were given the gift of sleep today. Our only activity for the day was an outdoor trip to Mint Springs Park in Crozet at 1 p.m.. We all used the free morning in different ways. Personally, I slept in a little and used the rest of the time to read before lunch and our lake outing.

We all grabbed a sandwich (and some also grabbed a salad) before all meeting in the lobby of Bice to carpool over to the lake at 12:45 p.m. The drive to Crozet was very scenic, and the lake was packed when we arrived. Some of us laid our towels and blankets right on the beach, and others found shade under a tree with a book. Several people went into the water and people started to jump off the dock further out into the lake. There were even lifeguards and a break time for “adult swim” just like when I was younger at my local pool. Afterwards we had some snacks, and had “uncooked” s’mores. The chocolate was melted because it was about 90 degrees outside. It was just a bit hot for s’mores; however, we all still really enjoyed them!

As the fun ended and we packed up our stuff, we all knew that we were headed back to the UVa campus to work on revising our preliminary reports and finalize out literature review for our policy proposals. Both are due tomorrow morning before our speakers and classes start. Hope it won’t be a late night for anyone!

Time for dinner at Bice. I wonder what the caterer is bringing us tonight!