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Vanderbeck, a transfer student from the University of Paris, thought of creating a student-run think tank with some of her colleagues while she was in France. "We were tired of left and right categorization," said Vanderbeck. When she returned to the United States, she encountered Kai Stinchcombe, a Stanford student and President of the Roosevelt Institution, who was building the research center from the ground up. "I started making phone calls and I found out that about twenty other schools were getting involved," she said.
The Bates College chapter of the Roosevelt Institution will consist of six subgroups, called policy centers, which will be headed by policy center governors. The current proposed centers are tentative, but the final list could include a political strategy center, an environmental center, an economic center, domestic and foreign policy centers and an equal opportunity center.
While Vanderbeck stresses that The Roosevelt Institution is designed to be a non-partisan think tank, the focus is on progressive issues. "We are not going to turn people away, this isn't a group affiliated with COPS or New World," said Vanderbeck. "However, we are focused on progressive ideals. Right now President Bush is standing for the status quo and the progressive ideal is focusing ahead."
Because the Bates College chapter of the institution does not have a mission statement or any funding yet, it is still a very flexible concept that Vanderbeck hopes will be picked up by students here on campus and formed into something unique to Bates. "I don't want this to be me holding the torch. I want students here to take it and run with it," said Vanderbeck. Currently Vanderbeck is working with other students on campus, like Julie Otton '08, Brendan Jarboe '08 and Alec Maybarduk '06, to do the grassroots organizing needed to launch such an endeavor.
While the future of the institution depends on the wills and ideas of the students involved, Vanderbeck does hope to see it one day become a non-profit nonpartisan organization. "We want to be progressive but we also want to be categorized as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization," said Vanderbeck. In order to fall under that categorization, the institution must not take school funding and must operate as a nonpartisan group.
Hoping to change the face of public discourse among students, The Roosevelt Institution will be holding informational tables outside of Commons from today through Thursday Mar. 10 as well as an information session in Keck classroom at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 16.
Vanderbeck is optimistic about what the institution can accomplish. "Students all across the nation have a vision of what the future can look like," she said. "As Senator Barak Obama [D-IL] has said, we have a huge chasm in this country, how can we take the next step to cure that?"
The Roosevelt Institution, which takes its name from the cousin Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Teddy Roosevelt, as well as FDR's politically active wife Eleanor Roosevelt, hopes to reach as many college campuses as possible, making a nationwide network of students who do research and analysis on issues that concern the future of public policy.
"I think Bates College is a great place for the institute," said Vanderbeck. "What's a better place to start but the ground?"