CLP 2010: Day 18, Wednesday, June 16

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.