The Senior Program

Public policy majors have three options for the senior project. They may take a one-semester seminar in the Government Department; they may research and write a thesis on a public policy topic, using traditional sources; or they may write a "public contract" thesis, in which they evaluate a policy or issue chosen by a state or local government in the Hamilton area.

In recent years, students' public contract projects have helped shape policy for New York State's Division of Youth, Department of Education, Office for the Aging, Division of Management and Budget, and Department of Transportation. More locally, students have worked with Oneida County's Department of Social Services, Department of Mental Health and EDGE program, as well as the towns of New Hartford and Paris and the village of Clinton's Chamber of Commerce. 

Recent projects in public policy include:

Honors presentations

• Gearing up for the Future: Policies to Boost Cycling in Utica, NY
• Policy Designed to Alleviate Income Inequality: Taxing the Dead to Lift the Living
• When Reform Repeats Itself: Dissent, Precedent, and the Resistant Image in Tech Policy
• Addressing the Lack of Affordable Childcare in the United States
• (Agri)cultural Sustainability: Towards a More Sustainable Approach to Dairy Farming in New York State
• Balancing the Scale: Tackling the U.S. Obesity Epidemic through Policy
• Closing the Gap: Progressive Solutions for New York State’s Public School Finance System
• The Little to No Accountability on Gun Manufacturers in the Wake of Mass Shootings
• Policy Analysis: Inadequacy of Climate Policy in the United States