The theme selected by the Goldfarb Student Executive Board for the 2022-2023 academic year is healthcare. Thus, the center will be focusing a significant portion of programming on public policy issues related to healthcare rights, including reproductive rights, gender and racial inequities in health and health care, big pharma and the economy, and the possibility, and challenges, of achieving universal healthcare, among other issues. Healthcare will be the topic for our annual spring policy competition. Our aim is to choose a theme or issue that is newsworthy, has clear ties to public policy, and can engage students across campus. The student board selected the issue of healthcare in the spring of 2022 before the historical decision by the Supreme Court this summer on reproductive rights.
The Goldfarb Center’s theme last year was on freedom of speech, covering a range of issues from students’ right to protest to the role of social media and big technology. The center brought speakers to campus to help explore these issues, including civil liberties leader Nadine Strossen, former head of the ACLU and author of a book on protecting hate speech, and activist Nathan Law, who is currently living in exile in London to escape Hong Kong’s crackdown on free speech. Colby faculty panels discussed free speech from a global perspective and how it relates to science. Students presented policy solutions in the Freedom of Expression Symposium on topics as diverse as press freedom to disinformation education.
Each year, the Goldfarb Center shapes much of its programming around an annual theme. The theme selected by the Goldfarb Student Executive Board for the 2022-2023 academic year was public policy issues related to healthcare including reproductive rights, gender and racial inequities in health and health care, big pharma and the economy, and the possibility, and challenges, of achieving universal healthcare, among other issues. The theme is the focal point for the Goldfarb Freedom of Expression Policy Symposium held in the spring, which offers Colby students up to $2,000 for the most compelling policy brief and presentation. The policy competition consists of two stages: a two-page policy paper and a public presentation. Students can compete as an individual or in teams of up to three people.
Policy proposals should be between 600-1000 words, do not need to follow any specific format, and can include bullets and visuals. Your brief should answer the following questions: What is the biggest problem with access to health care? What is the best policy solution to that problem and why?
Proposals may focus on a broad range of policy issues related to access to health care. Your brief should clearly state the problem being addressed and recommend a specific, actionable policy or policies. Be clear about what access to health care means for the purposes of the proposal.
Policy examples: Adopting a single payer health care system, cutting government programs and relying entirely on the marketplace, expanding Medicaid coverage to additional populations such as incarcerated people or youth, use of algorithms to determine who gets medical care, increasing the number of medical schools to expand medical professionals, revising regulations around who can practice medicine, constitutional amendments (state of federal) that protect access to types of medical care such as abortion or gender affirming care. There are many more! Competitors are welcome to discuss their policy ideas with Goldfarb staff and faculty advisors. Proposals must be submitted by Wednesday, April 5, to [email protected]. A panel of faculty judges will decide which proposals to move forward for the next stage as semi-finalists.
If you are selected as a semi-finalist you will be awarded $300 and you or your team will present your topic and policy solution to a faculty panel and audience at the Goldfarb Center’s Freedom of Expression Symposium. The symposium will be from 4:30 – 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 18th in Page Commons. Invite friends to come in person to watch and cheer you on! We will provide sandwiches, snacks, and drinks after the presentations while the faculty judges are deliberating. The top three winners will be announced at the end of the event. First place at the symposium will receive $1,700; second place $1,200, and third $700.
Your presentations should be between 5 – 7 minutes. Do not go over. We strongly recommend the use of visuals to enhance your presentation. You should be concise, organized, and specific, with well-supported points. While you should not deviate significantly from your policy proposal, you are expected to refine and strengthen your position based on the criteria given. If you are part of a team, you can decide if only one person vs. the entire team presents. We will be recording the presentations.
It is expected that you will further polish your proposal as you prepare for your presentation. Your first submission helped advance you to the presentation round, but you have an opportunity to strengthen it, if needed. You may want to add more detail, more research to support your points, or freshen up the design, but do not steer off your original topic and policy ideas. You are encouraged to cite existing policy briefs, news sources, or scholarly literature for context at this stage. Updated policy proposals should be submitted at the time of your presentation.
The winners will be judged on the final proposal and presentation. The faculty judges will send semi-finalists updated criteria before the symposium. Your proposal will need to provide a clear policy path, with concrete, tangible changes. State how the policy intervention would be implemented and what impact it will have. You need to show that you understand the current policy landscape. Your presentation should be thoughtful and practiced.
Evaluation criteria and guiding questions to help you prepare:
Problem selection and justification: Have you presented a specific problem and explained why it should be addressed?
Policy proposal: Is your proposal well-thought out, well-researched, and explained in sufficient detail? Have you reviewed existing policy responses to your problem to explain why your proposed approach is needed? Have you explained how we get to your recommended change(s)? Does your proposal demonstrate both an awareness of current realities and a creative vision?
Policy brief: Is the brief clear, organized, and persuasive? Have you supported your proposal with evidence and cited your sources (you can use any style but be consistent and make sure to attribute as necessary)? Is it written to be intelligible to a wide audience of stakeholders?
Presentation: Have you clearly distilled your idea into an effective presentation? Have you made use of visuals as helpful and necessary (but not over-relied on them – keep in mind that the presentation is very short so you will not be able to show many slides)? Have you practiced your presentation so you can confidently deliver it and do you know your material well enough to answer questions? Have you timed the presentation to make sure you don’t go longer than seven minutes?
In April 2022, eight student semi-finalists presented their policy proposals on Freedom of Speech. Topics ranged from Free Speech at Colby: Problems and Recommendations, to Enhancing Freedom of the Press in the United States.
The winners were decided by a faculty panel, which included Professors Christel Kesler, Aaron Hanlon, and Jin Goh, all members of the Goldfarb Faculty Advisory Committee. The top prize went to Serena Klebba ’25 for her work on Freely Informing Consent: A Plan to Change Mandated Pre-Abortion Counseling, second place went to Amir Jiru ’24 and Chris Ward ’24 who teamed up to focus on Misinfo Ed: Addressing Social Media Misinformation Through Education, and third place was awarded to Anna doRosario ’25 for her compelling thoughts on A Turning Point: Time for an “FDA for Tech”.
As part of the Goldfarb Center’s annual theme on freedom of speech, Colby professors guided us in a conversation on free speech with a global lens. How do policy approaches to free speech vary across countries? Is the US approach to free speech exceptional? What kinds of historical and contemporary factors help us understand different countries’ orientations toward free speech? What global and geopolitical forces shape policies on free speech?
The panel included Jen Yoder, the Robert E. Diamond Professor of Government and Global Studies and a member of the Goldfarb Faculty Advisory Committee, Jun (Philip) Fang, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, and Nazli Konya, Visiting Assistant Professor of Government. Moderating will be Christel Kesler, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology.
How has social media shifted the way we consume and share information? Has the surge of digital platforms driven (or not) America’s growing political divide? What policies can balance the protection of free speech with malicious disinformation campaigns?
The Goldfarb Center hosted a high-level panel discussion, tackling these questions and more and exploring the nexus between social media, political polarization, and free speech. Panelists included Roger McNamee, a tech venture capitalist and author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe; Renée DiResta, technical director of Stanford Internet Observatory; and Chris Vlasto, an ABC News senior executive producer. Kimberly Flowers, executive director of the Goldfarb Center, moderated the conversation.
This event is currently live on our website for 14 days only! You must have a @colby.edu address to watch it.
For more information on Roger McNamee, please visit www.prhspeakers.com
The workshop was led by Andrew Pope and Kristina Mensik from the Scholars Strategy Network. Andrew is the Director of Training at the Scholars Strategy Network. In this role, he works closely with staff and leaders from across the network to develop trainings that empower scholars to use research to improve public policy. Andrew has a PhD from the History Department at Harvard University. Kristina is the Trainings Fellow at SSN, where she supports researchers in the policy process. In addition, Kristina is a policy advocate and researcher largely focused on state legislatures, incarceration, and political participation.
The Goldfarb Center welcomed Lisa Kaplan ’13, founder and CEO of Alethea Group, who discussed disinformation in the digital age. From public policies to social media tactics, Kaplan explored how the general public, government, and private companies alike can protect and mitigate disinformation and social media manipulation in today’s world.
The event was hosted in-person for the Colby community. The recorded event can now be live-streamed at colby.edu/livestream.
The Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs hosted a conversation featuring Jan Plan visiting faculty Bernardine Dohrn and William Ayers. The talk was a contemporary conversation about how to respond to the desires, demands, and questions in classrooms today. What contradictions and conflicts, complexities and controversies, emerge when we consider free speech in the classroom? This is part of a series of events the Goldfarb Center has hosted this year in line with its focus on freedom of speech.
Bernardine Dohrn, activist, academic, and children’s and women’s rights advocate, is a retired Associate Clinical Professor from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was the founding director of the Children and Family Justice Center for 23 years. Dohrn is an author or editor of “Race Course: Against White Supremacy”; “A Century of Juvenile Justice” and “Resisting Zero Tolerance: A Handbook for Parents, Teachers, and Students”. Willam Ayers, formerly Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago has written extensively about social justice and democracy, education and the cultural contexts of schooling, and teaching as an essentially intellectual, ethical, and political enterprise. His books include “Teaching toward Freedom”; “To Teach: The Journey, in Comics”; and “Demand the Impossible”!
The Goldfarb Center hosted a thoughtful talk with one of the nation’s top First Amendment litigators on free speech issues ranging from protest rights, Black student activism on campuses, and the recent string of state classroom censorship bills. The event was an open Q&A session where Colby students had the opportunity to ask Mr. Sykes anything, which might include discussing his current cases and free speech work, free speech protection trends, or the historical role of student activism.
The Goldfarb Center hosted a conversation with civil liberties leader and free speech expert Nadine Strossen. The event officially kicked off a series of programming related to freedom of speech, the center’s theme this year. Ms. Strossen engaged in a robust Q&A with Colby students, faculty, and staff on issues ranging from how to effectively resist hate speech to free speech on college campuses. She talked about constitutional rights, the role of social media, and much more.
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