(!) Kudos by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 10:05 PM

Congratulations to everyone on the hearing today: the authors and coordinators, of course, but also to everyone who contributed to the inspiration, creation, discussion, and selection of the platform and service actions -- which is to say, the entire MSC membership. The presentations were top-notch, and the panel was incredibly impressed with the work that you all have done. Bravo.

A couple housekeeping things:

AUTHORS who presented today: Please make revisions to your proposals as appropriate, based on the feedback you received today, within the next two weeks.

EDU 362 STUDENTS: Portfolios are due, emailed to Gary and Jeff, no later than April 21. The format is outlined in the syllabus. Please be especially sure to include any relevant information or documentation about your work that wouldn't be readily apparent from the site.

(!) Your to-do list for the week by Jeff Kupperman on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 1:05 PM

Most of you are in the midst of a service action enactment, but we've gotten a few "what should I be doing now online" questions, so here's your to-do list for this week:

- EVERYONE: Post documentation of the service activity in which you are involved. In general this should take the form of photos, video, audio, or documents attached to the service proposal. (Remember that you don't have to be an author of the proposal to add attachments.) You may, of course, post more than one item, and you may post ongoing informal notes in the proposal's discussion area.

- EVERYONE: Revise your proposals so they are the best they can be, whether or not they made it into the platform.

- AUTHORS of proposals in the platform and service proposals being enacted: Prepare your speech and powerpoint for the hearing, and submit a draft to the appropriate topic coordinators, as well as Gary and Jeff, by Thursday. Needless to say, you should be making a special effort to edit your proposal so it is clearly written, complete, and representative of the broad interests of students in Michigan.

- TOPIC COORDINATORS: Give feedback or work personally with the authors of proposals in your topic as they craft their presentations for the hearing.

- OTHERS (not a topic coordinator or author of a selected proposal): Re-read the proposals in the platform and make at least one constructive comment or question on at least one platform proposal in *each* topic. The idea is to help the authors prepare for their presentations and anticipate hard questions the legislators and agency people might ask at the hearing.

(!) Preparing for the hearing by Jeff Kupperman on Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 4:39 PM

As previously noted, the Michigan Student Caucus hearing before the Michigan House of Representatives Special Commission on Civic Engagement has been scheduled for 9:30am - noon on Tuesday, APRIL 8, in room 426 of the state capitol building in Lansing. This is the culminating event for the MSC semester, and your best chance for your ideas to have a direct impact on lawmakers.

Attendance is MANDATORY for all UM caucus members, whether or not you are a topic coordinator, and whether or not you end up speaking to the Commission. If you have another class at that time, please explain the situation to your instructor for that class -- in the past, instructors have been very understanding. Lansing is about an hour from Ann Arbor by car, and you will need to arrange your own transportation there and back. (We're assuming that you'll be able to arrange rides amongst yourselves, but let us know if you need help finding someone to ride with. And before you ask us how to get there, look it up.)

The hearing will take place roughly as follows:

At 9:30, the chairpersons of the Michigan House of Representatives Special Commission on Civic Engagement will introduce the commission members and representatives from the various state agencies. We (Gary and Jeff) will then give a brief (!) history of the MSC, and introduce the agenda for the hearings.

Topic coordinators will then be introduced. (Each coordinator will speak, with one of you taking the lead role.) The coordinators will give a 1-2 minute summary of the most prominent ideas and issues that were discussed in that topic. They also may mention any noteworthy proposals that did NOT make it into the platform.

Then, the topic coordinators will introduce the author(s) of each resolution that has PASSED into the platform. ("And now, Mark Goldfaden and Raashid Gupta will talk about a resolution to improve tourism in the Thumb area ...") The authors will then spend 3-5 minutes explaining the underlying problem, the specifics of their resolution, and a summary of what was learned in discussion. Be sure to include specific facts and statistics in here, and above all be prepared to thoughtfully answer questions in a reasonable, highly informed way. The author(s) of each resolution in the platform should prep a BRIEF (no more than 4 slides) powerpoint presentation for these, as well as a written copy of the resolution for the committee.

AUTHORS OF SERVICE PROPOSALS currently being enacted should similarly be prepared to give a brief overview of the need for the action, the action itself, and progress to date.

AUTHORS OF RESOLUTIONS IN THE PLATFORM and ENACTED SERVICE PROPOSALS: Please send a copy of your presentation and speech to your topic coordinators AND to Gary and Jeff no later than NEXT THURSDAY, APRIL 3.

Remember that this is FORMAL TESTIMONY before the House of Representatives. Your name and testimony will be entered into the public record. This is not a demonstration or a show; these are elected officials genuinely interested in reaping the benefits of hard work by thoughtful, intelligent, informed people. They are taking a considerable chunk of time out of their day in a busy part of the year to hear what we have to say. You will need to be well prepared, which is why the topic coordinators will need copies of everything several days in advance. Dress, needless to say, is business attire.

(!) Final revisions by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 3:45 PM

CORRECTION: This announcement originally listed the hearing date as April 9, but it is APRIL 8, as previously announced.

As we move into the final stretch toward our April 8 hearing, we have decided to re-open proposals for final revision in topics where the vote has ended. (We purposely restricted editing on published proposals as they went into voting, for fairness and to avoid confusion.) At this point changes should be relatively minor, but authors of proposals in the platform should take special care to make sure that the proposals are complete and free of grammatical and spelling errors. You may also add or change wording for clarity. Authors of other proposals may want to revise as well, since all published proposals will become part of the MSC archive. To revise, authors and co-authors should follow the "edit" link next to the listing of their proposal.

One revision many of you will need to make is in the "consultations" section. The aim of the consultations section is to help check the feasibility and desireability of *your specific proposal* with people outside the MSC who are knowledgeable or interested in the issue. You must, therefore, consult with *real, live people*, in person, via phone, or email and get their reactions to your proposal. The consultant might be someone with particular knowledge -- for example, a public official, professor, or other professional -- or it might be someone who would be especially affected by your proposal, including business owners, parents, students in another part of the state, or other ordinary citizens. In any case, the point is to broaden the kind of feedback you get on your proposal. UM students, please re-read the relevant section of the syllabus for more details.

(!) Service proposal enactment under way by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 3:43 PM

Service activity groups have begun to organize and enact their proposals; if you have committed to a group but have not been contacted, please contact the author to make sure you are kept in the loop.

(!) Service proposal choices and enactment by Jeff Kupperman on Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 12:53 PM

Out of the many creative and thoughtful service proposals that were submitted, the Service Coordinators have chosen five for enactment. The five were chosen based partly on the number of commitments they had received, but also on the extent to which they met the criteria outlined in the syllabus, particularly in terms of their broad applicability to students across Michigan, and also in terms of going beyond existing opportunities with established organizations. Please see the service section for the proposals themselves.

IMPORTANT: If you have not already committed to one of the chosen proposals, YOU MUST COMMIT TO ONE OF THEM NOW. In other words, if you had committed to a proposal that was not chosen for enactment, you must RE-COMMIT to one of the chosen proposals. If that applies to you, be sure you have made your re-commitment NO LATER THAN MONDAY.

AUTHORS OF THOSE FIVE PROPOSALS: You need to organize and begin your activity as soon as possible. I strongly suggest making an email group that includes everyone who has committed. Please copy Gary and me on any email correspondence you send to the group. You may also continue to use the discussion areas in the various proposals.

DOCUMENTATION: Regardless of your role in the action you choose, you will need to document your activity. Documentation may be done in any medium, including photos, video, audio, or written narrative. You can -- and should -- upload these media and files directly to the proposal, whether or not you are the author. UM students should also be sure to save a copy of any documentation to submit with your final portfolio.

PEACE JAM: Gary and I will contact the authors of the five proposals soon about attending the Peace Jam event with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

We're looking forward to seeing your proposals in action!

(!) Last chance to commit to service proposals by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 9:27 PM

If you haven't yet committed to any service proposals, please do so ASAP -- the initial commitment phase ends at midnight Wednesday.

(!) Q & A with Liz Gershoff by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 9:14 PM

See attached, and a big Thank You to Liz and to all who submitted questions.

(!) Expert Chat: Plan B by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 3:00 PM

Due to today's technical problems with the expert chat, we're going to Plan B: Marissa is going to take the questions that have been posted (and there are quite a few), and email them to Liz; when Liz responds, we'll post her replies on the site.

Accordingly, we will extend the poverty voting deadline until Friday.

Thanks for your patience....

(!) Chat with Liz Gershoff starts at 2:30 by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 1:43 PM

Our chat with Liz Gershoff of the UM School of Social Work starts at 2:30 today in the "Experts" area. You'll need to scroll down a bit to get to the link....

(!) Poverty expert chat this Tuesday; voting period extended by Jeff Kupperman on Saturday, March 08, 2008 at 1:08 PM

We will have an expert chat on the topic of Poverty with Liz Gershoff from UM's School of Social work, starting at 2:30 this coming Tuesday, March 11. If you have questions for Liz but will be unable to join the chat, please email your questions in advance to topic coordinator Marissa Knee, who will be moderating.

Also, in order to allow Liz's expertise to be fully considered, we are extending the voting period for the poverty resolutions until the end of the day on Wednesday, March 12.

(!) IMPORTANT: MSC Spring Hearing Dates by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 11:20 AM

And now, the announcement you've been waiting for (sorry for the delay!): the MSC hearings for this spring will be held on TUESDAY, APRIL 8th, from 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM, in room 426 of the Capitol Building in Lansing. Obviously, EDU 362 students are required to attend, but we're also hoping our members around the state will join us too. (Teacher-facilitators, please let us know how many students you plan to bring.)

We'll be providing additional information about the format later, but if you're a topic facilitator, or if your resolution has been included in the platform, plan on testifying.

More later!

(!) IMPORTANT: MSC Spring Hearing Dates by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, March 06, 2008 at 11:20 AM

And now, the announcement you've been waiting for (sorry for the delay!): the MSC hearings for this spring will be held on TUESDAY, APRIL 8th, from 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM, in room 426 of the Capitol Building in Lansing. Obviously, EDU 362 students are required to attend, but we're also hoping our members around the state will join us too. (Teacher-facilitators, please let us know how many students you plan to bring.)

We'll be providing additional information about the format later, but if you're a topic facilitator, or if your resolution has been included in the platform, plan on testifying.

More later!

(!) Service commitments by Jeff Kupperman on Wednesday, March 05, 2008 at 4:35 PM

The service commitment function is working now. To commit to a service activity, open up the proposal and click "Commit/view current commitments". You will be asked to enter an explanation of why you are committing to that activity.

You may commit to more than one activity, but a commitment obliges you to participate in that action if it is chosen for enactment, so consider your commitments carefully! Be sure to commit to at least one activity other than your own.

Activities will be chosen for enactment based largely on the number of commitments they gather. After the "winning" activities are chosen, members will be asked to re-commit if necessary so that they are committed to at least one of the winning activities.

(!) The service commitment function by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 at 4:45 PM

... isn't quite working at the moment. We'll get it fixed and let you know ASAP. Meanwhile, you can read the proposals and start thinking about which you will commit to....

(!) Update: Hearing Dates by Gary Weisserman on Monday, March 03, 2008 at 2:30 PM

Hi, everyone--we know many of you are asking when our hearing will be this spring. We'll post as soon as we have the date--we're working with the House staffers to get things set. More soon (we promise!).

And elcome back to those of you who were on spring break! Hope you had a safe and relaxing holiday. Good to have you back!

(!) Service proposal construction ends MONDAY by Jeff Kupperman on Sunday, March 02, 2008 at 3:33 PM

Tomorrow -- Monday -- is the last day that proposals can be submitted for consideration in the Service area.

Starting Tuesday and continuing through March 12, members should "commit" to at least one of the proposals under consideration, by posting a commitment message in the appropriate area of your favorite proposal(s). After March 12, the Service coordinators will choose several proposals for enactment, based on the number of commitments and overall feasibility and appropriateness; members will be asked to re-commit if necessary so that everyone is committed to an active proposal.

Keep in mind that a commitment means that you pledge to actually participate in the service activity if it is chosen for enactment; it is not possible to retract a commitment once made.

Also remember that authors of service proposals chosen for enactment will be invited to to meet Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi at the Peace Jam conference in Kalamazoo on April 19.

Meanwhile, voting continues in the Poverty topic, and proposal construction continues in the Environment and Science topic.

(!) Three health proposals move to platform by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 6:38 AM

Normally, we'll wait for the chairs to announce whether they'll accept two, three or four resolutions on their topic into the platform after voting is done, but in this case, the top three were clearly tied, so we're jumping the gun a bit ... anyway, congratulations to the authors of these three resolutions:

Improving Food and Nutrition in Michigan Schools, originally proposed by Katie Balbirer
Resolution to increase taxes and/or prices of cigarettes in the state of Michigan, originally proposed by Jocelyn Kahn
Resolution to make healthcare affordable for Michigan residents, originally proposed by David Weisfeld

These three resolutions will be included, in final form, in the MSC platform, and presented in Lansing. Congratulations!

(!) Voting on Health proposals to end soon by Jeff Kupperman on Monday, February 18, 2008 at 1:26 PM

Voting on Health proposals continues only through Wednesday, so be sure to record your vote soon. Remember that the sliders should represent your RELATIVE assessment of the proposals, not an absolute ranking. So even if you don't hate any of them, you should mark your LEAST FAVORITE with a "zero" (slider all the way to the left), and even if you don't think any of them are perfect, you should mark your MOST FAVORITE with a "100" (slider all the way to the right). Only then will your vote carry the proper weight.

Meanwhile, proposal writing continues in the Poverty topic as well as in the Service area.....

(!) Two resolutions pass to platform in Education and the Arts by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 4:25 PM

Congratulations to Tracy Barnett and Jason Krochak, as well as to all their co-authors, for their hard work on the two winning resolutions in Education and the Arts.

Tracy's resolution, "Resolution to Increase the number of minority students that attend college," and Jason's resolution, "Resolution to Increase Spending on Early Childhood Education in Michigan," are both to be included in this session's rolling platform, and will be presented in Lansing at our hearings this spring. As this is a collaborative effort, our hats are off to everyone who contributed to the creation of these resolutions!

(!) Another reminder ... by Gary Weisserman on Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 10:24 AM

Voting ends in E&A tonight (well, technically, it's Thursday at 12:01, but you get the idea), at which point your vote is frozen and two resolutions will be chosen for the platform. In the meantime, voting has already begun in Health, and resolution construction is open in Poverty. Lots going on--keep up the good work!

By the way--please remember do NOT publish a resolution until it's complete. If you want to open an incomplete resolution for discussion, just add everyone to the authors list. We've recently depublished a few resolutions with no actual clauses for just that reason.

(!) Voting ends Wednesday in Education & the Arts by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at 11:49 AM

Voting in the Education and the Arts area ends WEDNESDAY, Feb. 13, so be sure to vote, and just as importantly, explain your thinking in the discussion linked from the voting area. Also be sure to set your weights as you prefer (using the draggable numbers in the left sidebar), keeping in mind that your vote will be multiplied by the weight you give it. Your weight for the Ed & Arts box will become "frozen" after the vote ends (at least if we've programmed it correctly).

Also note that voting will begin Wednesday for the Health topic.

(!) Upcoming chat: Elizabeth Haller, Center for Disease Control by Gary Weisserman on Saturday, February 09, 2008 at 4:54 PM

Eric Horowitz has arranged for our first health-based "expert chat"--with Elizabeth Haller of the CDC on Monday, February 11th at 9:00 AM.

Elizabeth is the School Health Team Leader at the Center for Disease Control. Ms. Haller has great knowledge about the health conditions
within the state of Michigan. She formerly was a health education teacher here in Michigan as well as a health consultant for the MDE. She has some very interesting data in regards to the current and past health trends throughout some areas of Michigan and is a great source of information for many different sorts of resolutions concentrated in the health field.

See you then!

(!) Voting begins in Education and the Arts by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 6:22 AM

Voting has now begun in Education and the Arts. Ten proposals have been submitted for consideration. Discussion now turns to selecting the best two proposals for inclusion in the platform. To join that discussion, go to "Vote on proposals," the "Discuss this vote."

Voting will continue until February 13th. You may change your vote (and your vote weights) at any time before then, but at the end of voting, your vote will be finalized. You may view the current results in the graph below the voting area after you vote.

Remember to assign vote weights before voting. You must do this in a browser other than Internet Explorer. Give the highest number (6) to the topic you care most about. (It's strongly suggested you give the 1 to "Sandbox!")

(!) Service brainstorming extended; proposal creation under way by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 4:05 PM

We're just starting to get some good brainstorming discussions in the "service" section, so we've decided to allow new brainstorming topics to be created until Feb. 15.

Meanwhile, the proposal creation phase for service activities has begun. Please start putting your ideas into concrete form, keeping in mind that many of the problems and issues you've identified in the topic areas so far can lend themselves to service activities as well as legislative resolutions.

(!) Health is now in proposal construction phase (calendar clarification) by Gary Weisserman on Sunday, February 03, 2008 at 9:18 AM

As the calendar is a bit confusing, we thought we'd clarify exactly where we are:

Education and Arts is still accepting resolutions for another few days (by request, an extension was granted through Thursday), and will then go to a vote--please remember to set your weights before voting;
Health is now accepting resolutions;
Poverty will open for brainstorming on February 6th.

Also, remember that topic facilitators are supposing to be arranging for "expert chats" during either brainstorming or resolution construction, when the chats are most useful to have.

(!) By request: extension on resolution construction for Ed & Arts by Gary Weisserman on Saturday, February 02, 2008 at 7:43 AM

Having not received any negative feedback on extending the deadline for the construction and submission of resolutions for Education and the Arts, we've extended the closing date a few days. The new end date is February 7th. We've agreed to add a few days mostly because several high schools are just now getting into the swing of things, and had strong feelings about the topic.

Remember, however: you must actually PUBLISH your resolution before then for it to be considered in the vote!

One more thing ... as resolutions are published, recall that there are several different ways you can discuss them, especially when things get to the voting level: through the "general discussion about this proposal" area, through "clause" specific comments (which allow commenting on specific claims--click on the speech balloon next to the clause), and (soon) through the "discuss this vote" area. There are a couple already published--we strongly encourage discussing them!

(!) Request for date change? by Gary Weisserman on Friday, February 01, 2008 at 10:26 AM

There's been a request to add a few days of resolution construction to the Education and the Arts topic. The request is from some of our recently joined members in Frasier. If you have strong feelings about this one way or the other, please let Jeff or I know in the next day or so.

(!) Chat with MaryAlice Galloway: Postponed by Gary Weisserman on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 9:33 AM

We just received word from MaryAlice Galloway of the Michigan Department of Education that some sort of crisis has arisen at MDE, and that she's going to need to reschedule. She sends her deepest apologies--Jeff and I will get it rescheduled ASAP. Sorry for any inconvenience.

If there are any urgent questions you'd like to ask her, we can get them to her via email fairly quickly.

(!) Today's chat: Susanne Chandler and Linda Thompson by Gary Weisserman on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 6:19 AM

Just a reminder that we'll be joined at 4:00 PM by Susanne Chandler, Dean of the School of Education and Human Services at the University of Michigan's Flint campus, and Linda Thompson, Superintendent of Flint Community Schools. They are well-known leaders in urban education, school reform, and teacher education.

Come ready with ideas, comments and questions!

(!) How to get to today's chat ... by Gary Weisserman on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 11:29 AM

If you're just logging in, be sure to click on the "Experts" tab, then select the chat with Karen Gagnon and John Bracey. We'll be starting around 11:45, but you can start throwing questions around at any time!

(!) Let the resolutions pour forth ...! by Gary Weisserman on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 8:41 AM

Just a reminder that resolution construction for Education and the Arts ends on February 3rd--so if you want feedback on your resolutions, be sure to share authorship and/or publish as soon as you're able! Also remember that when your resolution is ready for "prime time," so to speak, you need to publish it--before the deadline if you want it considered for voting.

By the way--some interesting conversations already in the brainstorming area for Health. Check 'em out!

(!) Brainstroming for Health is now open ... by Gary Weisserman on Sunday, January 27, 2008 at 9:45 AM

As we continue emphasizing construction of resolutions for Education and the Arts--and as we prepare for several expert chats this week--the brainstorming area for Health is also open for discussion. And don't forget the brainstorming area for service, which is open through this week. Hop to it!

(!) Service ideas: Places to start by Jeff Kupperman on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 3:53 PM

If you're having trouble coming up service action topics and ideas, here are a few places to help spark your thinking:

- Remember that the authors of the top service proposals will have the opportunity to go to the Peace Jam conference in April and meet Nobel Peace Price winner Shirin Ebadi. Peace Jam's work is based on a "Global Call for Action" which is very broad, but which definitely hits a lot of important problems in the world today. Needless to say, it will take some thinking and discussion about what *you* can do right now to help, but it's a great place to start:

http://peacejam.org/globalcalltoaction.htm

- The National Youth Leadership Council site has a whole bunch of service project examples. Many are aimed at young kids, and some are more than you could do in the time we have, but it's worth reading for inspiration and ideas:

http://www.nylc.org/rc_projectexamples.cfm

- Student Action for Change has a list of recent news items that might provide some ideas:

http://www.actionforchange.org/getinformed/stories.html

... plus, the rest of the site has a ton of links to resources and other organizations.

- UM's very own Ginsburg Center has a list of community partnerships. Remember that the idea is to propose new kinds of service activities, but you're more than welcome to invent activities in partnership with existing organizations:

http://ginsberg.umich.edu/community_organizations/community_programs.html

(!) And don't forget "service" by Jeff Kupperman on Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 3:59 PM

Don't forget that you should be brainstorming ideas for "service" right now as well. The focus can be just about anything, but think of it as finishing a thought that begins with "What if we all....?" A service activity might be anything from a group demonstration to small actions done by lots of people. It can press the government or private institutions to change, or -- more positively -- it can call for individuals to change what they do or how they live. It might help increase public awareness of an important problem, or directly help those in need. See the syllabus for further guidelines....

(!) Clarification and reminder by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 1:36 AM

Noting that people are still posting there, we thought it prudent to remind everyone: the brainstorming period for Education and the Arts has ended. You're certainly welcome to continue your discussion there as well if you'd like, but in general your attention should now be turning to the construction of resolutions within that topic. (Remember, if you want to solicit feedback or collaboration, you're encouraged to add authors to your resolution. They'll be able to edit or discuss as the proposal is in progress.) And in just a couple of days, we'll overlap topics by opening brainstorming in the "Health" area as well ...

(!) Update about upcoming expert chat: January 29, 2008 by Gary Weisserman on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 10:38 AM

Quick change in our schedule expert chats, and it's a good one. Our 4:00 PM chat on January 29th will have a second guest: in addition to Susanne Chandler, Dean of the School of Education and Human Services at the University of Michigan's Flint campus, we will be joined by Linda Thompson, Superintendent of Flint Community Schools. Come prepared with ideas, questions, and topics for discussion as we pick the brains of two of the state's leaders in urban education.

(!) Resolution construction begins in Education and the Arts by Gary Weisserman on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 8:52 AM

The brainstorming period for Education and the Arts has now ended, and we now turn our attention to the crafting of resolutions within this area. (Please remember that a few days from now, we will begin brainstorming the Health topic as well. Topic facilitators should be actively preparing for this, including arranging for expert testimony.)

By way of reminder, there are three sections to each resolution:

A "preambulatory" section;
An "operative" section; and
A "consultation" section.

The preambulatory section is a series of independent clauses that describe an existing problem in Michigan and the need for action. It is research based, and generally has between 8-15 individual clauses. Each section begins with the word "WHEREAS" and ends with a semicolon. For instance, a preambulatory clause about the need for further dual enrollment opportunities for high school students might contain (among many others) the following clauses:

WHEREAS Lt. Governor John Cherry's Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth reported noted that each year of college raises a student's average annual income by 10%; and that the economic gap between those with a college diploma and those with only a high school diploma has been increasing since 1975, and is likely to increase at a quickening pace; and

WHEREAS 90% of Michigan students wish to go to college, but only 41% enroll directly out of high school (Lt. Governor's Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth). In large part, this disparity is a function of socioeconomic status. As Vargas notes, “For every 100 low-income students who start high school, only 65 will get a high school diploma and only 45 will enroll in college. Only 11 will complete a post-secondary degree (Vargas 34)"; and

The operative section is a series of independent clauses that propose legislative remedies to the identified problem. The section is separated from the preambulatory section with the word "THEREFORE," and each clause begins with the phrase, "BE IT RESOLVED." For example, a resolution about increasing access to the arts in Michigan might contain the following clauses:

BE IT RESOLVED that the State of Michigan establish residential Governor's Schools on the campuses of up to three of Michigan's public Universities, open to students grades 9-13 who show exceptional promise in either Digital, Entertainment, or Fine Arts fields; and that the State of Michigan provide two grants of up to $225,000 for qualified proposals from Michigan's public universities for the design and implementation of seasonal Governor's School programs. Recepients must complete an initial implementation of the program no later than September of 2010, with an initial RFP for planning being issued by no later than June of 2008;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that summer Governors' School programs must be held on a college campus, with instructors possessing a Master's Degree or better within their fields and/or substantial professional experience, and must be at least three weeks long with a minimum average of five hours per weekday of instructional activity. Priority will also be given to programs that leverage partnerships with other academic, business, or community institutions.

Importantly, this section not only identifies possible action, but answers relevant questions, such as: Who will be impacted by this action? How will we measure its success? How will it be paid for? What models, if any, exist in other states? Is similar legislation already being considered?

The consultation section is a new addition to the MSC platform. As our goal is to ensure that the platform is well-informed, and draws not only on available research but also on the contextual experience of experts within the state, we ask that each platform resolution include evidence of consultation with a minimum of two experts within the field at hand. MSC participants are asked to upload documentation in the form of a summary, a transcript, an MP3 file, or a brief video clip containing key elements of these consultations.

Resolution construction within the Education and the Arts area will continue through February 3rd. You may edit, share, collaborate, and discuss these resolutions through February 3rd. (Helpfully, authorship of individual clauses is noted.) When you are satisfied with your resolution, be sure to click "PUBLISH". Only those resolutions published by February 3rd will be eligible for voting and discussion.

UPDATE: If you want to experiment a bit with site functionality, please remember to do so in the SANDBOX area, not in the active topics. Also, please remember: DON'T click "PUBLISH" unless your proposal is ready for prime time! You can still receive feedback by sharing the resolution with site users. (I've removed a couple of what I assume are accidentally published resolutions.)

(!) Two days left in open brainstorming on Education and Arts by Gary Weisserman on Monday, January 21, 2008 at 9:36 AM

Just a reminder to keep your eyes on the calendar below. The open brainstorming period for Education and Arts will end Wednesday, after which we will begin turning our attention to the real business of each topic: construction of resolutions. That will continue until February 3, after which we will begin voting. Education and Arts will be immediately "overlapped" by the Health topic (topic facilitators are David Weisfeld, Eric Horowitz, and Alan Tisch), which will open for brainstorming on January 27.

Also remember we have at least three expert chat scheduled for next week. Topic facilitators, it's probably a good idea to start setting up your expert chats now, even if your topic doesn't begin for quite a while.

(!) Quick informal poll by Gary Weisserman on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 3:54 PM

In our conversations with members of the state legislature, it's come up that several of the members would be interested in doing a "job shadowing" day with some of our MSC'ers. If you're interested in spending a day looking into what life is like as a legislator, and maybe picking their brains and/or advocating a bit for your constituency, please let Jeff or I know as soon as possible so we can help set up a date and time.

(!) The conversation has begun ... by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 7:00 PM

... in the Education and Arts area, under "brainstorming," with the first batch of MSC members beginning to engage in open discussion for a week or so, prior to beginning resolution construction. So join in!

And oh yeah: you are NOT limited to the discussion topics Jeff and I started. Want a new topic? Go ahead and start one ...!

(!) Update to the update: for EDU 362 students; and a few other items by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 2:44 PM

Correction to the last post: if you were not on the waitlist already, but attended last night's orientation session, you do not have to waitlist yourselves first. All students who attended the session should have overrides issued by tomorrow. You will still need to enroll via Wolverine Access to enter the class, however.

Some other items:

1) We did find another bug for users of Safari. There's a summary in the technical notes below, but in sum, if you use Safari, when you upload media files, Safari will not refresh the page properly. For the time being, if you must use Safari, you may need to click on a tab again to refresh. We are aware of the problem and are looking for a fix.

2) We've added a couple of small features. For instance, when you search for a user and view their profile, you can now click on their image (if they've uploaded one) to get a better look. We'll be adding numerous such improvements over the course of the semester; if you have suggestions, please let us know!

(!) Update for EDU 362 students by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 9:04 AM

Good morning, all! After speaking with the department this morning, it appears as though we should be able to issue overrides to everyone who attended last night's orientation session, which is of course good news.

If you were already on the waitlist, you should have permission to enroll in the next day or so. You, however, must actually enroll yourselves through Wolverine Access; we aren't able to do that for you.

If you are not on the waitlist, you should now be able to add yourself. You must do that first before an override can be issued. Please do that in the next 24 hours, at which point the department should be issuing you permission. Again, you'll still need to actually enroll yourself through Wolverine Access. If you run into trouble adding yourself to the waitlist, I'm told by the department you'll need to contact the registrar's office directly.

(If for some reason you did not attend the orientation session, but are enrolled or on the waitlilst, you are advised to drop the class. As previously noted on the syllabus and via email, attendance at the orientation session is a course requirement for this program.)

By the end of the day, all EDU 362 students should be on the site, having filled out their user profile and having explored the "Sandbox" area as appropriate, and should begin engaging in brainstorming discussions regarding Education and the Arts (not to mention live chats, etc). Note that many non-University MSC members won't be on the site until later in the month, so it's a good time to get your feet wet in a smaller, more intimate environment than we'll have later on. Also, please mark our first few expert chats on your calendar, and be prepared with questions, comments and appropriate observations!

If you have questions, don't be afraid to holler.

(!) Topic Coordinators by Jeff Kupperman on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 8:56 PM

Our topic coordinators are...

Education & Art: Jeff, Gary
Health: David Weisfeld, Eric Horowitz, Alan Tisch
Poverty: Tracy Barnett, Kimberly Levine, Marissa Knee
Environment & Science: Eric Greenstein, Brandon Schram, Erica Kantor
Justice & Security: Dustin Fleischman, David Warner

Service Coordinators: Jocelyn Kahn, Elissa Rosen

Keep in mind that the coordinators' job is to facilitate and assist -- the actual work of the caucus is everyone's responsibility!

(!) So what's open so far? by Gary Weisserman on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 5:54 PM

As we get started in this new session, it's worth taking a quick look at upcoming events on the calendar. Education and the Arts is the first topic, with brainstorming going on for the next week or so and resolution construction for a week and a half after that, at which point we'll also start brainstorming Health. We've opened up a few topics for discussion already in Ed & Arts, but feel free to add more as the mood takes you. We also have a number of moderated chats coming up with experts providing testimony within the Ed & Arts area. Jeff and Gary have arranged these first few chats; the topic facilitators will arrange most of the rest.

So ... go ahead and get started! And if you want to experiment and play around with the new site a bit to see how it works, head on over to the Sandbox area, where all activities are available.

(!) For EDU 362 students (Ann Arbor) by Gary Weisserman on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 11:31 AM

This is only for those of you who are in EDU 362 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, but here is a copy of the Winter 2008 syllabus. Please read through it carefully, especially if you've participated in MSC before, because there are numerous and sundry substative changes from what you've done in the past.

(!) MSC Orientation Session by Gary Weisserman on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 10:10 AM

The mandatory MSC orientation session for EDU 362 students on the Ann Arbor campus is scheduled for Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 7:00 PM on the second floor of the School of Education.

The course presently has an extensive waitlist. If you are hoping for an override into the course (sections 005 and 006), please be sure to add yourself to the waitlist via Wolverine Access. We will not be able to confirm membership in the class until after the orientation session.

The latest version of the syllabus will be uploaded shortly. Please contact Professors Gary Weisserman or Jeff Kupperman if you have any questions.

Technical notes:

The new Michigan Student Caucus site is still in beta. Thanks for your patience in helping us make it better!

As of January 2008, you'll need the Firefox or Safari browsers to be able to access all site capabilities (we strongly recommend Firefox for all platforms). Until further announcement, assigning weights to topics and the "drag and drop" features used while editing proposals do not work in Internet Explorer. We are working on the issue and hope to resolve it soon.

Technical update: A problem has been found in Safari as well. When you upload media files, Safari will not refresh the page properly. For the time being, if you must use Safari, you may need to click on a tab again to refresh. We are aware of the problem and are looking for a fix.

About the Michigan Student Caucus

The Michigan Student Caucus represents students throughout Michigan to the Michigan State Legislature. Since 2001, thousands of students across Michigan have participated in online deliberation, negotiation and voting leading to the construction of a political platform that is presented in formal testimony to the House Commission on Civic Engagement.

The Michigan Student Caucus is not affiliated with any political party or organization. The MSC is open to any Michigan resident (permanent or temporary) who is a student. For information about the program, please contact our faculty advisors at The University of Michigan, Professors Gary Weisserman and Jeff Kupperman.

Twice each year, MSC participants, including hundreds of high school and college students from around Michigan, present testimony about the MSC platform before the Michigan House of Representatives' Special Commission on Civic Engagement. Frequently, the platform is themed. This year's theme is "Michigan 2017." Our goal is to figure out where we want to be ten years from now--and how we need to get there. Our most recent previous theme was "Cool Cities, Cool State," and was offered in partnership with Michigan's Cool Cities Collaborative.

The following documents may be useful to you in getting started:

• Here is the working Fall 2007 platform (198 K, PDF format).
• Here is the 2005-2006 platform.
• Here is the 2006-2007 platform.
• Students taking this course for college credit may download the Winter 2008 syllabus for EDU 362 (UM-Ann Arbor).
• Here is a presentation that was used during the orientation session to introduce the program (Google Docs).

Please note we are in the process of moving MSC to a new system. The new web application is in beta-testing right now. Bear with us as we discover and address problems in the new software, and let us know if you encounter any bugs.

Committee schedule:

The committee schedule will occur along the following schedule (schedule subject to change):

Education and the Arts (Ed & Arts): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on January 13, 2008 and ends on January 23, 2008; resolution construction begins on January 23, 2008 and ends on February 7, 2008; voting on submitted resolutions begins on February 3, 2008 and ends on February 13, 2008.

Health (Health): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on January 27, 2008 and ends on February 3, 2008; resolution construction begins on February 3, 2008 and ends on February 13, 2008; voting on submitted resolutions begins on February 13, 2008 and ends on February 20, 2008.

Poverty (Poverty): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on February 6, 2008 and ends on February 13, 2008; resolution construction begins on February 13, 2008 and ends on February 23, 2008; voting on submitted resolutions begins on February 23, 2008 and ends on March 14, 2008.

Environment and Science (Env & Sci): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on February 16, 2008 and ends on February 23, 2008; resolution construction begins on February 23, 2008 and ends on March 12, 2008; voting on submitted resolutions begins on March 12, 2008 and ends on March 19, 2008.

Justice and Security (Just & Sec): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on March 3, 2008 and ends on March 10, 2008; resolution construction begins on March 10, 2008 and ends on March 20, 2008; voting on submitted resolutions begins on March 20, 2008 and ends on March 27, 2008.

Service schedule:

The service schedule will occur along the following schedule (schedule subject to change):

Winter 2007 : Open brainstorming for service projects begins on January 3, 2008 and ends on February 15, 2008; construction of service proposals begins on February 3, 2008 and ends on March 3, 2008; participants may commit to a service project beginning on March 4, 2008 through March 12, 2008. Service projects will take place between March 12, 2008 and the end of the session, based on the dates identified in each adopted project. (Projects must be approved by the service chair and faculty advisors.)

Special events, such as expert chats, will take place regularly. Please check the latest news in the "updates" area.

All MSC participants are, of course, strongly encouraged to attend our hearings in Lansing, usually in December and April (dates TBA). Participants earning college credit in EDU 362 (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor) are expected to attend per course requirements.