Throughout the academic year, the Institute of Politics challenges UChicago students to propose solutions to major issues in local, national, and global politics. The winning team of our Spring 2025 challenge will be awarded $500 per team member.
DIY DOGE. The winning team will be awarded $500 per member, and their proposal will be forwarded to the United States Senate DOGE caucus.
When the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was established by President Trump, it was initially greeted with bipartisan interest. Now, DOGE’s mandate has expanded significantly and support has polarized. Many of its actions have been controversial, possibly illegal and subject to litigation.
So! For this challenge, we're tasking students with coming up with recommendations to the president for making the government more efficient and responsive to the American people. Cutting programs, staffing, adding or modernizing services and re-prioritizing federal spending are all fair game, but proceed carefully! Planning to fire thousands of people as Elon Musk has? Remember the courts may block you. It doesn't need to be all about cutting either: you could create an app to help make government more efficient, or bypass onerous hiring requirements so that new college graduates can speedily enter public service.
No policy experience is necessary! This competition is open to all UChicago students.
If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Palmisciano (spalmisciano@uchicago.edu).
The period between the November election and the beginning of the new Congress in January is known as a "lame-duck session." Students were tasked with creating a piece of bipartisan legislation that could pass during the lame-duck session after Trump's election but before his inauguration.
While politically divided, rural and urban areas both struggle with health care, child care and food access; an ongoing opioid crisis, and often, economic disinvestment. We challenged students to create policy proposals to address challenges facing both urban and rural communities.
In our fourth university-wide contest, we challenged students to present a plan on how they would improve housing affordability in a city or rural area of their choice.
The Institute of Politics and the Kiphart Center for Global Health and Social Development challenged students to present a plan to attack hunger anywhere around the globe – from conflict zones to your own college campus and anywhere in between – formed through their specific area of study or interest.
The Institute of Politics and the Center for Effective Government joined forces for a university-wide contest soliciting student-generated policy solutions to fix Chicago’s transit system.
The Institute of Politics teamed up with the Harris School of Public Policy for a contest soliciting student-generated policy solutions to the student-debt crisis.