Politics in Action at OIT
So I already mentioned in one of my tweets that I’d be meeting with Senator Smith this next week for a few minutes regarding renewable energy. While I’m certainly not a fan of his politics, I’m definitely excited for an opportunity to show off OIT and what’s possible with at a smaller, more individualized school. Plus, I’m not quite principled enough to not get a *little* thrill out of getting introduced to a United States senator.
While I don’t expect much more than a handshake and an introduction, I’m already gaining first hand experience with how the system *really* works. When I tried to get the rest of the team working with me on biodiesel invited to the event, this is the response I received from the OIT administrator coordinating the event. Please note, this is not at all a criticism of her, she is just working within the confines imposed upon her.
Drew, here is the itinerary. How many students are on the team? Senator Smith is specifically interested in geothermal energy on this visit, as he has supported our federal appropriations toward the power plant. Congressional delegation visits are usually fairly structured, which prevents opportunity for us to deviate much from the Senator’s agenda. His aide wants to keep the group small. I’ll need to brief him on Monday, if we add more people. Please provide names of those attending, as I need to get them to Jason. Thanks. Take care.
While on the one hand this is all pretty reasonable given practical limitations, on the other it’s a little disappointing that he’s not more open to actually learning from his constituents rather than setting the agenda himself and preventing deviation. How can you represent people that you won’t listen to and actively avoid? I hope this attitude is somewhat unique to Senator Smith, but I suspect this is the attitude taken by most/all figures in national politics.
Regardless, I’m still looking forward to the opportunity, and I really hope the Senator is impressed by OIT, however little he sees of it, and remembers when it comes time to vote on educational funding.
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
