History

The Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, formerly the Roosevelt Institution, was established in 2004.  Shortly after the election, students on a few campuses across the country realized that their disillusionment with the election stemmed from more than just its outcome.  The role of students in the political process consisted of getting out the vote by knocking on doors.  Quinn Wilheim, one of the founders, used to say frequently to students that money, manpower and ideas were the three main pillars of politics.  Students are already knocking on doors, we do not have money, and up until this point, we had never been asked for our ideas.

Guided by the desire to change this unfortunate reality, the mission of the Roosevelt Institution was to give students a voice in the policy process, not as advocates of others’ ideas, but as the generators of new solutions for current problems.  In doing so, a new generation of progressives and informed problem-solvers could burst forth on the nation’s political stage.

Kai Stinchcomb returned to Stanford after working for Kerry on the campaign in Nevada to think about came next.   He sent out an email to Stanford list servs suggesting the idea of a progressive student think tank to fight the Hoover influence.  Jessica Singleton from Middlebury College and Dar Vanderbeck from Bates College responded to the email proposing such an organization exist on campuses across the country.  The question of whether they would be the “first and only” student think tank was answered when one student said a friend at Yale started his own think tank.  Kai called Jesse Wolfson, and the two groups joined forces.

The ultimate realization that college campuses were already effectively think tanks, just not efficient ones, led to the foundation of the nation’s first (and only) student think tank.  A host of incredibly visionary and inspired individuals took the organization from a few schools to the incredible 85 that the Campus Network boasts today.  Students took time off from school in the early years, today there are four full time recent graduates working in the DC national office. 

The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI) was an early believer of the fledgling organization, providing enthusiastic support and a blessing from the Roosevelt family; they said “we’ve been waiting for you for fifty years.” In 2007, the Roosevelt Institution merged with FERI and formed a partnership that is only beginning to realize its full potential.

The development of a new mission statement unified the network, creating a more cohesive vision.  The infrastructure grew organically, as everything does in the network, developing a regional field team and a policy strategist team to support the growth of the network and to support the policy creation that remains the center of our mission. Our policy model evolved from a journal of long impressive policy pieces to Roosevelt Challenges.  Students would vote on three challenges they wanted to address during the academic year: socio-economic diversity in higher education, an America that works for working families, and energy independence for three examples.  Those ideas formed the 25ideas series, a set of legislative proposals by Roosevelt students to tackle those specific issues.

Today, we have an even more stable structure; six national policy centers that are consistent year-to year: defense and diplomacy, economic development, education, equal justice, energy and environment and health care.   Each center has a lead strategist, they are responsible for working with individual students on policy ideas, writing pre-emptive policy analyses on national legislation and guiding the organization’s policy focused initiatives.

A new website, custom designed policy and organizing trainings, a summer internship program that is in its third year, and the explosion of campus chapters are all signs that the organization’s growth is no longer a question, but a guarantee.  Students remain drawn to, and inspired by, the vision that began with our founders.   Ours is a fundamental This fundamental understanding that students are able to contribute more than just their time and (non-existent) money to the political scene, and that there should be an avenue through which their ideas can impact state, local and federal policy debates and legislative outcomes.