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Posted on Mon, Nov 15, 2010 : 9:34 a.m.

Skyline students examine local problems in analysis of public policies

By Shoham Geva

Shoham Geva is a sophomore at Skyline High School enrolled as a first-year student in the Communication, Media, and Public Policy magnet, with a strong interest in journalism. She is writing this column to showcase the CMPP magnet. This is the second of her weekly columns on the program.

Sophomore CMPP students at Skyline High School are doing what policy analysis is all about - identifying, defining and finding solutions to problems. And they're doing it exactly the way the grownups do it, with a focus on the same problems Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County's policy analysts investigate. These problems resulted in solutions like the Fuller Road Multimodal Transportation Center, the LED Street Light Project, the Weatherization Program and the Mayor's Energy Challenge.

The Fuller Road Multimodal Transportation Center is being worked on by five students: Emily Anderson, Alex Kime, Stassia McGlothlin, Claire Dykstra and Sarah Beauchamp. I asked Alex to give me a quick rundown of what it was all about, and he told me that it's a plan to build a multimodal transportation center on Fuller Road, in front of the University of Michigan hospital. This transportation center will ultimately include University of Michigan and AATA bus stations, a train station, walking trails and places to park both cars and bikes.

Raven Vawters, Kinya Stevenson, Diana Chen and Shoham Geva are working on the LED Streetlighting Project. Raven told me that this is an initiative to replace all the streetlights in downtown Ann Arbor with LEDs. Currently, the downtown lights are being replaced thanks to a $630,000 grant from the Downtown Development Authority. She also told me about the benefits of LED lights and why Ann Arbor needs them. LED lights cut down on light pollution because they can focus the light better, and they also ultimately require less maintenance and energy... which adds up to less money.

Working on the Mayor's Energy Challenge are Kira Smith, Lacey Deloria, Kaz Ishikawa, Marquis Wesley, Andrew Almani, Eric Jensen, Jayla Sims, Troy Naylor, Janae Sims and Martika Fairley. Janae and Troy talked to me about the challenge and gave me the specifics. This is, as the title indicates, a challenge issued by the mayor of Ann Arbor to the people of Ann Arbor to use more green energy. Specifically, the mayor would like to see municipal operations running on 30 percent or more green energy by 2012.

The Weatherization Project is being worked on by Katherine Liu, Angela Song, Hannah Lee, Eileen Belden, Kelsey LaHaye, Nivetha Samy, Mackinzie Cole and Jessica Parent. Katherine and Angela gave me the basics of this project. They told me that it's a program designed to help low-income families have their homes weatherized: this means making their homes more energy efficient.

Most sophomore CMPP students are finishing their information gathering and are starting to find/evaluate solutions. They were recently helped in both of these endeavors with a classroom visit by city council member Sabra Briere and Energy Commissioner Brigett Macomber, Energy Program Manager Andrew Brix and Energy Office staff member Nate Geisler.

Stay tuned: for the next four weeks, this column will present an in-depth look at each of the individual projects: Fuller Road Multimodal Transportation Center, the LED Street Light Project, the Weatherization Program and the Mayor's Energy Challenge.

Comments

Andrew MacKie-Mason

Sat, Nov 20, 2010 : 4:44 p.m.

The focus of policy analysis should be on the problems that certain programs are designed to address, and determining whether those problems justify a certain program. For example, the Fuller project should be examining what needs the transportation center would address and whether those needs justify its construction. And the LED project should be looking at whether LED is a good solution to the problems caused by traditional street lighting. I could be wrong, but this article suggests that the solutions are being assumed rather than studied. And don't sell yourself short by saying that you're doing the same thing that the "grownups" do, and investigating the same problems. A program like this has the potential to create true young leaders, but that won't happen if it seems like it's all about copying the professionals. Don't be afraid to challenge the "grownups", whether by presenting different solutions or disagreeing with them on whether something is even a problem in the first place.