Second-Year Seminar: Exploring politics at the local level

When it comes to politics, people often think of the federal government, but Assistant Professor of American Politics Megan Goldberg is teaching students that there’s so much more to democracy than just congress and the president.

Her Second-Year Seminar (SYS) course, Bottom-up Democracy: Organizing in State and Local Politics, is giving students a hands-on approach to learning about how to create change within a school district, city, county, and state.

“We’ve been learning all about local and state politics–what the barriers are to participating and giving them the lay of the land about what local offices exist,” Goldberg said. “Most people know about mayors, but they don’t know about county offices, like county supervisors.”

The class is welcoming several visitors, including county supervisors, candidates from both parties currently holding a seat in the Iowa House or Senate, and those who are running in the upcoming election. Organized Power Lunches are providing students the chance to hear what candidates have to say during panel discussions and interact one-on-one during a meal. 

“A lot of times the media only displays the negative aspects and attributes these politicians have put forth,” said Savannah Sheffler, a sophomore politics and kinesiology major from Illinois. “Actually getting to talk to these politicians, you get to see how they grew up and how they got into it and the great things they’ve done for the communities that they’re a part of.”

The class is also tackling barriers that come along with getting involved in politics, like understanding complex, but important, topics such as budgeting or zoning. Students are also attending local meetings in the community throughout the block to get a first-hand look at what issues unfold.

“We are learning about how democracy starts,” said Nick Schwartz, a sophomore politics major from Minnesota. “It doesn’t start at the national level, it starts here at the grassroots. We are learning about how local elections matter, how local news impacts local elections, and how off-cycle elections work.” 

And you don’t have to be a politics major to take this SYS–any sophomore who is interested in the topic can take the class. SYS is all about citizenship in practice and is a fundamental component of Cornell’s new Ingenuity curriculum. These seminar classes are designed to encourage creative problem-solving through hands-on experiences involving community engagement, service-learning, performances, and field trips. SYS students work throughout the class to answer: How do we use what we know to take informed action?

Goldberg says this SYS is teaching students how to be good citizens and showing them the power they hold if they get involved in their own communities and have conversations with their neighbors. 

“I have really gotten to brainstorm with my peers about politics in general,” Sheffler said. “We have something called house meetings where we talked about issues either on campus or off campus and how we resolve them.”

They’re also learning career skills if they decide to pursue a political path. Part of that includes getting in touch with as many students on campus as possible to alert them of the upcoming November election and planning voter registration drives.

“If they ever wanted to be an organizer with a campaign or work for a campaign in an entry-level position, this course is starting to build those skills,” Goldberg said.

Schwartz says this SYS course is preparing him for the rest of his college journey and he has one big takeaway:

“If you really want to effect change, you can.”