Faces of Berkeley
Student to Present Policy Research

A UC Berkeley graduate student in energy and resources will join a select group of policy-savvy students from around the country Wednesday at the Roosevelt Institution's first annual Policy Expo in Washington, D.C.

Sam Arons was selected among hundreds of applicants nationwide to participate in the policy forum sponsored by the student think tank.

Out of the hundreds of applicants who submitted policy papers, only a select 20 were chosen to present at the Expo. Arons, the only presenter from UC Berkeley, will join students from Brown University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, Princeton University and other institutions.

A graduate student in the Department of Energy and Resources, Arons currently serves as co-chair of the Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's Advisory Committee on Sustainability. He is also vice president of Students for a Greener Berkeley as well as founder and coordinator for the Berkeley Sustainable Investing Collaborative, started in 2005.

Arons' work in sustainable investing stood out immensely to the judges, who grade on "the thoroughness of the research, creativity of their ideas and the progressiveness of their approach," said Andrew Cox, the national communications director of the Roosevelt Institution.

Cox, after looking over Arons' work was "absolutely impressed."

"(Arons and his partner from Harvard) knew their stuff," Cox said. "They had a unique perspective, really interesting solutions and extremely thorough research."

Cox commended UC Berkeley as "a stellar chapter" of the Roosevelt Institution.

"(The UC Berkeley chapter) is at the forefront of every major policy," he said. "I'm very excited to have Sam and his partner come and present."

The institution was formed partially in response to the 2004 presidential election, in which many young people felt their votes were taken for granted and their policy ideas ignored, Cox said.

Arons said he hoped to use the forum as a launching pad for increased sustainability at the nation's colleges and universities.

"In almost every university in the country, none of the decision makers are considering any environmental or social factors in making their decisions," Arons said. "This is a huge opportunity to maximize financially, and also to think about ways to solving environmental problems and social behavior by investing our money."

Arons said he is excited to attend the Expo and hopes to see the forum grow in future years.

The second issue of the annual Roosevelt Review, a journal containing six student policy papers, will make its debut at the Expo. These journals will then be delivered to every U.S. Senator.

After all presentations and discussions are finished, the Expo participants will also vote on one of the three year-long commitments to new policies in specific areas.

The Roosevelt Institution plans to turn student policy ideas into visible action using three constituents: the policy makers-such as the U.S. Senate-the general public and communities with progressive leanings.

"I think (the institution) is progressive in two senses, in being the nation's first student-run progressive public policy think tank and progressive in terms of its political views," Arons said. "The kinds of public policies it likes to think about are progressive."

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