Students attend a public seminar at the UC Center Sacramento.

UC Center Sacramento aims to serve policy-makers

UC Center Sacramento celebrates its fifth anniversary in May with a renewed effort to develop its role as a resource for the state policy-making community.

Launched as a five-year pilot project in 2003, the center has been awarded permanent status. That means UC students will continue to have access to a robust learning experience in the state capital. Each year the center places dozens of students as interns in legislative offices and Sacramento nonprofits. In addition to working as interns, students attend classes at the center's K Street building, write a public policy research paper and get a solid grounding in how state government works.

But student learning is not the center's only mission in Sacramento. It also hosts public seminars and speaker series and serves as a research resource for legislative offices, a role that will be growing.

"We're a front door for UC research in Sacramento, and that will expand," said A.G. Block, director of the center's public affairs student journalism program. "For us, research and public service are very much intertwined. Our mission is to make available to California policy-makers the research from all 10 UC campuses."

For every challenge California faces, Block said, there are likely UC researchers working on the same problem. If a legislator needs expertise for drafting a bill or testimony before a committee, the center can help find a UC expert to fill those needs, he said.
 
The center is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a May 6 reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1130 K St., Suite LL22, Sacramento. For more information about the event and center resources, call 916 445-5134.