Issue Groups

 

Legislative Semester Students have the unique opportunity to collectively create a vision of the world as they would like it to be by authoring bills on issues of their choosing.  Students research and write bills with a group of other students, known as an Issue Group.

 

In order to facilitate the process of selecting issues and forming groups of students with similar interests, the early weeks of the semester include many opportunities to explore problems that students see in the world around them.  On Issue Declaration Day a first come first served process allows pairs students to "claim" issues they want to address through legislation.  Students lobby their classmates to advocate for the importance of their chosen issues, ultimately creating teams of four students which constitute an Issue Group. 

 

Each group spends several weeks doing in depth research and investigation of their issue and coming up with ideas for a bill to address the root causes of the problem. This research is the basis for a position paper, the text of the bill, and the Bill Sponsor Speech.