Projects:

1. Impact of Federal Information Technology Policies (Two Students)
As part of the EDUCAUSE policy office, spring break interns will assist the vice president in monitoring and analyzing the impact federal information technology policies have on the education and research networking communities.

Specific duties may include:
• Attending congressional hearings and writing up briefing papers for EDUCAUSE policy leadership.
• Contributing to EDUCAUSE's "Washington Update," the weekly online newsletter that keeps subscribers apprised of the latest CIT policy issues impacting the EDUCAUSE community.
• Building "Resource Web pages" on particular IT and networking issues of critical importance to the EDUCAUSE membership.

Past University of Michigan Alternative Spring Break interns have contributed to the policy column in the EDUCAUSE publication, "EDUCAUSE Review," helped educate the EDUCAUSE policy team on potential new CIT policy issues, and have represented EDUCAUSE at a variety of federal policy meetings and events. The EDUCAUSE team strives to provide the interns practical opportunities to learn more about IT policy issues they find of particular interest. Details on the policy issues EDUCAUSE follows may be found on the EDUCAUSE Policy Web site.

Participant Comments

"I researched current information on patent reform that was discussed in the 110th Congress. I updated information on the EDUCAUSE Patent Reform Web page with new links and an introduction. I also reviewed the Information Policies Web page on the EDUCAUSE Web site and made recommendations on how to improve the look and usability of the pages. The rest of the time was spent attending hearings and other meetings.

"Attending the various hearings made me more aware of what information technology issues the U.S. government is currently most interested in. It is during the early stages when policies are being discussed that I can be part of this development period. My experience has made me more aware of information issues that are currently 'hot' and in public focus. It has made me rethink the idea of becoming more involved in the policy making at an earlier stage of its existence. I hope to be kept abreast of the issues arising in Washington, D.C., and be vocally active in supporting information policies that will benefit the the future of the U.S. and its people.

"The Washington, D.C., office has a small staff and although Garret Sern was my supervisor, I really spoke to and worked with most of the staff there. Everyone was very willing to talk and explain issues that EDUCAUSE was focusing on. Despite the short period of time, they were able to locate someone from another organization to talk to me about the area of information that I was particularly interested in. They were willing to locate more people; however, it was too short of notice. Despite the busy schedule of everyone, everyone was willing to put aside the time to focus on us and our interests.

"I really enjoyed attending the various Congressional hearings. It was a great learning experience."