La Follette Institute revives brainstorming between legislators and faculty

A great tradition was revived this month as part of the Chancellor’s Initiative.

The La Follette Institute Policy Forums returned March 3 when a small group of faculty, staff and students met over dinner with interested legislators to discuss information technology policy, including issues of electronic commerce, archival retrieval and privacy.

Legislators attending were Sens. Jon Erpenbach, Brian Rude, Kim Plache and Bob Jauch; and Reps. Marlin Schneider, Dave Hutchison and Phil Montgomery. Faculty were Dennis Dresang from political science and the La Follette Institute; Louise Robbins, director of the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS); Douglas Zweizig, also of SLIS; and Raj Veeramani of engineering and the Consortium for Global Electronic Commerce. La Follette staff and one student also attended.

The informal dinners and discussions were a major link between the Capitol and the university in the late 1980s, but were interrupted by changing priorities at the Legislature and on campus. Chancellor David Ward revived them as part of his new legislative outreach initiative.

Discussions between faculty and legislators take place regularly in person, in phone calls and in committee work, says Donald Kettl, director of the La Follette Institute. But this effort guarantees regular interaction between both parties, both houses, and both institutions on a variety of topics suggested by legislative leaders, he says. Best of all, it happens in a nonpartisan, informal setting, away from daily distractions.

“The dinners are an attempt not just to discuss government, but to discuss policy and the public good,” says Kettl. “They help remind us that politics, as Aristotle believed, was humankind’s highest calling and focused on one thing: the improvement of society.”

Kettl says other similar forums and their topics are being planned.

The forums are part of Chancellor Ward’s effort to strengthen the Wisconsin Idea by having the university expand and redefine its service to the state.

Other parts of the Chancellor’s Initiative, assisted by the La Follette Institute, have included:

• Orienting newly elected legislators in January.
• Sponsoring a brown-bag series on ethics in February and March held downtown for legislative and agency staff.
• Issuing a series of papers and research on major topics facing the university in the next 20 years.

Kettl presented one of those papers at a recent Roundtable discussion and condensed it for publication as a column published in state newspapers.

The initiative is also looking for innovative ways to serve the Legislature, Kettl says. For example, he says the La Follette Institute is pairing legislators with faculty and staff throughout the university, following a survey of all legislative committee chairs on vital concerns and issues.

And the institute is looking into ways to prepare audiotapes and compact discs on important issues for legislators to use on their trips across the state.