Hands-on senate identifies leaders

The structure and functions of government can be learned in a typical lecture class, but one professor here takes a more personal approach.

Dr. J. Philip Rogers, Stanford University graduate and political science professor, knows that students need a hands-on experience to fully engage in learning.

GOVT 2302, American Government: Problems and Policies, gives them the opportunity to make over the U.S. Senate in their own image.

Students play senators from each of the 50 states, identify themselves as Democrat or Republican and write a bill on a hot topic that the Senate in Washington, D.C., is debating.

Students present the bill to the classroom senate just as is done in the U.S. Senate.

Each student senator is assigned to serve on a committee, such as Education and Health, Justice and Environment, and Foreign Policy and Economy.

Each committee has an assigned student chair, who decides the order of the bills to be presented on the floor of the full senate.

A majority leader, a Democrat, and a minority leader, a Republican, ensure parliamentary control.

Since the Aug. 29 death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., President Barack Obama and the Senate have had difficulty in getting bills passed, especially those to do with health care reform and immigration.

Political science sophomore David Rodriguez knows that illegal immigration is a problem but also strongly believes that the 23 million immigrants who enter this country "come over here for a better way of life."

Rodriguez, portraying a moderate Republican, said the immigration bill, known as the DREAM Act for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, "needs to be more refined."

The DREAM Act, introduced March 26, would, if passed, grant eligible immigrants temporary residency status and even entitle them to apply for student loans and work-study jobs, but not Pell Grants.

In answer to the Dream Act, Rodriguez authored the AMIGO Act, or American Mexican Interest in Government Order Act.

He believes it will rescue foreign policy with Mexico to encourage more economic stability, government transparency and infrastructure in that country to reduce the volume of illegal immigration and illegal drug cartel activity.

While natural science freshman Phillip Eyhorn, also chair of the majority party in the mock Senate, focuses on a bill on the detention policy in Guantanamo, he said he believes that finding a justified environment for the detainees is vital to have justice done.

So what do students think of Rogers' approach?

"The simulation itself makes it more exciting," Eyhorn said. "One can see where the class is going."