Coastal Carolina group attends Policy Intensive study in Washington
March 28, 2016
Graduate students meet with key officials; discuss the nexus between policy and science
CONWAY, SC – A group of Coastal Carolina University (CCU) graduate students led by Marine Science Professor Tom Mullikin traveled earlier this month to the nation’s capital as part of a comprehensive fact-finding and information sharing study program aimed at forming the nexus between, as is said, “good science and good policy.” The study trip – the 2016 Washington, D.C. Policy Intensive – introduced the group to the dynamics of congressional legislative and federal executive-level rulemaking processes during meetings with key officials who briefed, answered pertinent policy questions, and generally availed themselves to Professor Mullikin, other faculty, and students.
The Intensive offered an “experiential learning environment” developing a “firsthand understanding of the application of sound science in complex statutory, legal, and regulatory matters,” as stated in the program syllabus.
The scheduled meetings included a day-one (Monday, Mar. 7) morning session of the U.S. Supreme Court. This was followed by a meeting with Ben Tyson, Clerk to the Chief Justice of the United States, and a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts. Students then attended a Supreme Court lecture in the Courtroom, a tour of the Supreme Court building, and a meeting with the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Law and Policy Section – Environment and Natural Resources Division. A tour of the DOJ headquarters building followed.
Day-two (Mar. 8) featured two lectures by Mullikin as well as meetings with Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Tim Scott, Congressman Tom Rice and their respective staffs. The day concluded with briefings by Public Policy Advisor Jeanne L. Morin and Richard L. Spees, Chair, Government Affairs & Public Policy Practice Group; both with Akerman LLP.
Day-three (Mar. 9) included a meeting with the staff of the Council on Environmental Quality – Executive Office of the President. Students then met with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) General Counsel Lois Schiffer, who serves as the chief legal officer for all NOAA activities and as a policy advisor to the Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.
Day-four (Mar. 10) included a meeting with Christopher Smith, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy, U.S. Department of Energy; followed by a meeting with Dr. Carlos E. Del Castillo, chief of the Ocean Ecology Laboratory – NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“This is not the first time we’ve led our graduate students from CCU to Washington,” says Mullikin, who has led three Intensive study trips which have now became annual events. “The Washington Intensive is an effective means by which we are able to connect our graduate-student scientists to the policy arena so that they might be able to create relevancy to their bench science.”
