THE ROSE REVIEW DIRECTOR’S REPORT Kenneth P. Miller, J.D., Ph.D.
Spring 2024 3 - Student Management Report 4 - A Day in the Park 6 - Project Updates 8 - Off-Campus Fall 2023 11 - Rose Reflections: Andy Busch 12 - Senior Farewells 14 - Speaker Series 15 - Alumni Spotlight: Abhi Nemani ’10 16 - BOG Spotlight: Scott Woolley ’92 18 - Govt 117 Class Trip to Sacramento
The Rose Institute has succeeded over the years by maintaining a laser-like focus on its three-part mission: developing our students; producing high-quality, policyrelevant, data-driven research; and enhancing public understanding of state and local government, with an emphasis on California. In this edition of The Rose Review, I’d like to share some thoughts about the first element of that mission: student development. At the Rose Institute’s 50th anniversary celebration last fall, I noted that Rose students go on to have great success after graduation, and their success can be traced in part to our strategic approach to their training. I also said that I want the Institute to get even better at developing our students’ capacities so that we will become widely known as the most effective center anywhere for the training, mentoring, and formation of undergraduates. I know that’s an audacious goal—and impossible to measure—but it’s right for us to reach for it. We already have many elements in place. Over the years, the Institute has developed a highly effective undergraduate training program—and, even more, an organizational culture that helps each student develop his or her potential. Let me share some specifics. First, each fall we run a training program for recently hired student RAs, coordinated by a senior who is selected as New Hire Manager. Last fall, Liann Beilicki ’24, served in this role and led our 12 new hires through a rigorous training program, which culminated in each student designing and executing research project on a topic of
state or local policy. Liann and a group of student and faculty mentors advised the new hires on their projects. At the end of the semester, all the students produced reports and presented their research. Through this “boot camp,” each new Rose student took a deep dive into a policy area, developed research skills, and gained the capacity to contribute to Rose Institute projects. Moreover, as in the past, the new hire program will produce fresh ideas for the Institute’s public-facing work. Consider housing policy. Over the past several years, California’s housing crisis has emerged as one of the most high-profile, controversial policy areas at the intersection of state and local government, and thus an ideal research topic for us. But until a couple of years ago, the Institute had developed little expertise in this field. In the fall of 2021, our new hire class included three students, Anna Short PO ’24, Ryan Lenney ’25, and George Ashford ’25, who wanted to research new developments in housing policy. They produced outstanding new hire reports and later converted them into Inland Empire Outlook articles on housing underproduction, inclusionary ordinances, and public attitudes on housing market regulation. Those articles could have been the end of our work on housing, but, fortuitously, in 2022, a CMC alum named Nick Warshaw ’09 contacted us to ask if the Rose Institute would consider researching housing policy and co-hosting