The semester is half over and the AU Gap students have been busy taking advantage of all DC has to offer through their Seminar in American Politics. Below Professor Marie Fritz shares what the students have been studying the past few weeks and how they have been able to use DC as their classroom.
In an effort to address salient issues occurring in politics and society, we started off the semester in our Seminar in American Politics class with a visit to Arlington House Museum (the home of Robert E. Lee), adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery. In class we talked about political memory, the potential for reconciliation, and how some dominant ideologies remain in our political culture. Like many other introductory courses in U.S. Politics, we shifted to an exploration of the Founding principles and the structure of American government. Exploring philosophical ideas such as liberalism and republicanism, we visited the National Archives to view the U.S. Constitution along with other Founding documents of the United States. In class the students worked together to draft portions of a new U.S. Constitution with the student groups based in specific geographic regions of the United States. It was fascinating to 
see how students would design elections and change the representation of the people in Congress, as well as to establish the rights of groups that had been previously excluded.
After discussing the U.S. Constitution, we moved on to federalism and the separation of powers. We enjoyed an educational boat tour of the Anacostia River on the east side of the District of Columbia hosted by Anacostia Riverkeeper, a non-profit organization with a mission to protect and restore the river, and discussed environmental federalism and the ways in which the structure of our government impacts public policy decisions at the federal, state, and local levels. We even saw a bald eagle!
We examined civil liberties and media at the Newseum and watched a documentary about the Freedom Riders to learn more about the relationship between federalism and the promotion of civil rights. As we turned to studying the three branches of government we had the opportunity to meet Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (a non-voting Delegate to the House of Representatives for the District of Columbia) with a talk on the floor of the House of Representatives, followed by a student-led tour of the Capitol building. We visited the Supreme Court and enjoyed a lecture in the main courtroom where oral arguments are held. Finally, we examined various theories related to the presidency and completed a project about budgeting decisions and the executive branch using the question, “If you were an advisor to the current President, which programs would you cut from the federal budget to advance your administration’s priorities?” to guide the discussion.
In the last part of the semester we will explore public opinion, campaigns and elections, interest groups, and social policy with professionals who work in the areas of polling, campaigns, and public policy. I am excited to see how the final section of the semester unfolds.
– Dr. Marie J. Fritz, AU Gap Professor, Fall 2017