Reaction Paper: Public Hearing or Elected Official Visit

Attend a public hearing or meeting. It can be a public forum of any kind held at the state, city, county, tribal or town level. Examples include a state legislative committee hearing, a town council meeting, a tribal council meeting, or a school board meeting. Or, set up a visit with an elected official to present a position on an issue of relevance to you or your community. This is an experiential way of learning about the policy-making process. Review the Segal (2011) article to see how you can use social empathy to better understand your experience and use it to inform your future advocacy efforts to bring about social justice.

Student health is our top priority. Due to an increase in community event cancellations and public concern for large group gatherings related to the spread of the Coronavirus students are eligible to view public forums remotely. These can be archived meetings or hearings.

Options include:

Watching C-SPAN
Watching recorded public forums.

After attending the meeting or visiting with the elected official, write a 2-3 page reaction paper describing what you observed and your impressions of the gathering or meeting.

What was the purpose of the meeting?
For the hearing or public meeting, was it easy to follow what was taking place?
Who were the principals involved? Was there evidence of a power differential, and if so, how was it demonstrated?
Was there an opportunity for the public to participate?
Was the hearing or meeting what you expected?
Was diversity and sensitivity to diversity evident?

How about in your one-on-one meeting (if you arranged one)? Describe the meeting.

What did you observe?
What were your impressions?
Did you feel welcome?
Was there evidence of a power differential?
Could you discern if there was sensitivity to diversity?