About Us
Activities and Partnerships
Institute students will be provided the opportunities to learn about, observe and engage with the government at all levels through internships and special projects.
Spring Local Government Fellows
The institute’s undergraduate fellows program will provide students the opportunity to attend local City Council, County Commission, School Board and Planning Commission, and other government agency meetings as they follow a project, topic, or function of government through the regulatory and/or approval processes.
Students will have regular meetings with Baker Center Director and Professor Emeritus of Political Science Bill Lyons, who also served as Chief Policy Officer for 16 years in the City of Knoxville before joining the Baker Center as Director of Policy Partnerships. Here they will explore the structures, issues, and interests and their resolution in the local political arena. The goal is to increase student engagement in politics and their appreciation for the critical work of local government.
This project is running in parallel to a set of undergraduate internships in city and county government, and quasi-governmental organizations that the Baker Center has launched.
Intercollegiate Civil Disagreement Partnership
Two UT Students are currently enrolled in the ICDP, administered through Harvard University’s Safra Center for Ethics. It is possible that the Institute would invest in a longer-term administrative partnership in this project.
American Academy of Arts & Sciences Working Group on Building Democratic Citizens in Higher Education
Marianne Wanamaker is serving as the Institute representative to this group, chaired by Ben Vinson III, Provost & Executive Vice President at Case Western Reserve University and David Campbell, Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame.
