Getting a Taste of Administration and Public Policy

By: Jordan Darling 03/07/2019

The CSUDH Academic Senate is a body of government on campus that represents the voices of the faculty and staff.

Dr. Laura Talamante, the current senate chair, said that “The Academic Senate takes part in a shared governance and is a representative for faculty and staff.”

The senate recommends various proposals that go up the chain to the president and provost offices where they have the potential to become policy.

Earlier in the semester the senate was approached by Dr. Maria Avlia of the College of Health, Human Services and Nursing in the Division of Social Work for internship spots for a couple of her grad students.

Dr. Avlia told the senate that it would be a beneficial place for her students who are in the master’s program for social work to be able to apply the concepts they learn in class in a real-world application.

The program is still extremely new taking the first steps this week when the two interns sat down with members of the senate on Monday, Feb. 25 to have a preliminary discussion on the objectives and outcomes for the program.

Susanne Walker, Coordinator for the Academic Senate, said that since this is the first time that the senate has been approached to do something like this there are still a lot of questions to be answered and logistics to work out.

Walker supported the idea of the internship saying “It is one thing to read about something in a textbook and another to see how [policy] starts and how it ends up.”

The interns will be working directly in the Academic Senate office and with various committees attached to the senate in order to understand the cycle of public policy.

The interns will be sitting in on meetings and working with the provost office to learn about the policy making first hand.

Walker said that while the program is still new the possibility for a permanent internship spot within the senate is a possibility and there is potential for it to open up to undergrads interested in public policy making.