Student Leadership in Fall 2017: A Retrospective
December 3, 2017 | By Anna Bianca Roach |
As 2017 draws to a close, so too does a semester of hard work on behalf of SPPG’s student-led initiatives, and we congratulate our MPP candidates on what they’ve come together to achieve this semester. To celebrate the close of the year, we’ve asked our leaders to reflect on their work in Fall of 2017 and their plans looking forwards to the winter term.
Beyond the Headlines (BTH), SPPG’s own radio show and podcast, kicked off the 2017-2018 season with brand new content, fresh opportunities and novel external partnerships.
Since September 18th, BTH has produced 10 original episodes, airing on both CIUT 89.5 FM in Toronto (Mondays at 11:00 a.m. ET) and UMFM 101.5 FM in Winnipeg (Tuesdays at 8:00 a.m. CT). Topics for the shows have been broad-ranging and have touched on areas such as health innovation, NAFTA and intellectual property, housing and homelessness, abortion access barriers, LGBTQ immigration policies and zombie laws in the Canadian Criminal Code. Additionally, the newly-developed BTH Insight Series has offered improved opportunities for students who wish to become involved in the initiative as well as second-year producers who have aspired to take on additional producing responsibilities, while maintaining quality policy content for the show’s listeners.
As with previous seasons of BTH, the 2017-2018 season has featured interviews with prominent policy professionals from Canada and abroad in each episode. Some of the guests this year so far have included Academic Chair of the World Health Innovation Network and CEO of the Supply Chain Advancement Network in Health Dr. Anne Snowdon; U of T Law Professor and Director of the International Technology Law Association Richard Owens; Executive Director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada Joyce Arthur; U of T Professor of Housing and Community Development and Former Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies David Hulchanski; Chief Medical Advisor to the Deputy Ministry of Health Canada Dr. Suprya Sharma; and Former Deputy Minister of Health and Wellness for the Government of Nova Scotia Dr. Peter Vaughan. BTH has also been privileged to talk to the policy professionals right at SPPG including Peter Loewen, Janet Mason, David Pettinicchio, and George Vegh, and Gabriel Eidelman.
This year marks the 9th annual Ford+SPPG Conference. The conference is organized and led every year by students from the School of Public Policy and Governance and the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. In November, our Executive Committee kicked off the Conference year with our Launch Event, where we revealed the theme of Disruptive Technologies to a group of enthusiastic SPPG students from both first- and second-year cohorts. With this theme, students will be challenged to address policy concerns in the area of technological disruption. Delegates will evaluate potential policy options, develop bold policy recommendations that address the current issues, and present their solutions to a panel of expert judges.
Currently, the Executive Committee is working hard to organize our upcoming Pre-Conference Event, which will be held on Friday, February 9th, 2018. Here, delegates and SPPG students will have the opportunity to engage with the theme and learn more about the current policy challenges with an expert panel discussion.
The Ford+SPPG Conference will be held in Toronto on Friday, March 9th – Saturday, March 10th, 2018. We look forward to hosting our Ford colleagues in the Winter semester!
The Gender, Diversity, and Public Policy Initiative (GDPP) promotes the adoption of an intersectional lens in policy analysis and encourages the discussion of gender and identity-based inequalities in the realm of public policy.
This semester, GDPP has programmed a number of successful events. They held their first roundtable on October 30th, in which GDPP Analysts led a discussion on the policy implications of attempts to regulate hate speech and freedom of speech. In partnership with the Policy innovation initiative (Pii) and the Students’ Association, GDPP also co-organized the annual Fall Prof Talk. At the event, GDPP’s Faculty Advisor Dr. Linda White as well as Dr. Teesta Sooman from Grand Challenges Canada explored the intersection of equity and innovation, especially as it pertained to the policy process, and recognized the increasing importance of diversity as a driver of innovation.
Another cornerstone of GDPP’s mission is thought leadership. This semester, the initiative launched their Unpacking Equity series, a collaboration between GDPP and the Public Policy and Governance Review (PPGR). This series aims to explain equity-related policy issues and break down complicated topics involving equity, diversity and inclusion. GDPP also led efforts to create an Equity Advisory position for the SPPG Students’ association, and will be working with the SPPGSA to create the terms of reference for the role.
Last, but not least, GDPP is also heavily involved with professional development programs at SPPG. GDPP analysts received a training session from the Treasury Board Secretariat of Ontario Accessibility and Inclusion Lead, with a focus on the policy relevance of accessibility in Ontario including new workplace legislation. Finally, GDPP also collaborated with the Public Good Initiative and Spectrum to deliver the Anti-Oppression training to SPPG students along with the support of Spectrum.
The Policy innovation initiative (Pii)’s mission is to equip public policy students with the skills and experiences required to practice and imbue innovation into their academic studies and everyday professional work. As broader public sector innovation increasingly reflects the changing way services and programs are developed and delivered, Pii wants to give students the opportunity to build their innovation experience and related skills through a variety of professional and social development opportunities.
During the 2015-16 school year, Pii hosted our inaugural hackathon, Hack4Health, to tackle challenges in the healthcare sector. The 60-seat sold-out event included professional and graduate students from a variety of backgrounds. Over 40 students joined from departments including public policy, public health, health informatics, urban planning, and business administration. Professional attendees came from the public service, private sector, and start-ups, and most expressed an interest in civic tech-driven solutions to public policy issues. We received very positive feedback from participants and look to incorporate lessons and suggestions learned into our upcoming hackathon in 2018.
Next semester, we’re looking forwards to the Innovation Jeopardy Pub Night on January 11th and the Policy Hackathon on Food Security on March 25th.
The Public Good Initiative (PGI) is a pro-bono policy consulting organization that matches talented consultants from SPPG’s MPP program with community organizations looking to benefit from policy-based consulting services.
This year, PGI has welcomed 43 student consultants to work on 11 exciting projects benefitting the policy capacity of local non-profit organizations. This year’s client list spans a broad range of policy issues including: health issues through projects with Canadian Doctors for Medicare and Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, social issues through projects with YWCA Canada and Egale Canada Human Rights Trust, and environmental issues through a project with The Atmospheric Fund.
PGI’s consultant teams have met with their clients and begun work on their complex policy projects, which include research and analysis through literature reviews, stakeholder interviews and focus groups, surveys and data analysis. Consultants have deepened their policy knowledge and professional development through a Literature Review & Jurisdictional Scan Workshop with Prof. Triadafilopoulos, an Evaluation & Surveys Workshop with Prof. Radner, and a Focus Group & Interview Workshop with Prof. Zuberi.
PGI also participated in organizing an Anti-Oppression Workshop alongside with Spectrum and GDPP.
The Public Policy and Governance Review (PPGR) is a dynamic bi-annual publication and blog written by tomorrow’s policy makers and professionals alike. It features peer-reviewed academic articles, political analyses, interviews with policy leaders and innovators, reports from the field, reviews, debates, and opinions.
This semester, the Public Policy and Governance Review published over 20 articles from students at SPPG. Highlights include Y1 student Breanne Bateman’s recap of David Eaves’ recent lecture on technology and governance at SPPG, alumna Lauren Birch’s analysis of how to become a Toronto city councillor, and Y2 student Marvin Ferrer’s commentary on means-testing of social welfare benefits. The PPGR has also launched a new “Unpacking Equity” series of articles in partnership with the Gender, Diversity and Public Policy Initiative that explains complex issues related to equity, diversity and inclusion. In addition, the editorial team continues to compile interesting articles every week into a Morning Brief newsletter, with over 200 subscribers (and counting).
Follow PPGR on Twitter and Facebook for more exciting policy journalism from the PPGR in the new year, including a “Five Questions with Policy Leaders” series.
Spectrum is a student initiative aimed at professional and career development for LGBTQ+ students. The organization has met with the Ontario Public Service Pride Network to organize events to host LGBTQ+ leaders to showcase as role models for LGBTQ+ students, faculty, alumni, and staff. Spectrum co-hosted anti-oppression training with PGI and GDPP earlier this term. Finally, Spectrum is excited to announce that we will be hosting Toronto Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam and former Ontario Cabinet member (Ministries of Energy and Infrastructure, and Health and Long-Term Care) and Deputy Premier George Smitherman for a panel discussion on January 15 over lunch. We invite everyone to save the date as more details will follow regarding this exciting event.
The fall semester of 2017 has been an amazing one. We’ve had the opportunity to continue some great SPPGSA ‘traditions,’ but also implement some new ones.
Going into this school year, we continued the bi-weekly newsletter, Prof Talks, social events, town halls, and mid-term evaluations. There was great participation from the SPPG student body and we received some excellent feedback from these initiatives and events. We also continued to expand our relationship with the alumni network through in-person and telephone meetings. We have also successfully utilized the student initiative calendar to coordinate with the rest of the amazing student initiatives at SPPG.
In the coming semester, we will be continuing to have more talks, social events, and student initiative coordination. We look forward to continuing our work.
Stay tuned for more talks, social events, and student initiative coordination in the coming semester.
