Using a recent grant from Hillsdale College Student Federation of $500, Praxis will be making an effort to get their membership more involved, according to Vice President and sophomore Savannah Tibbetts. To foster involvement, the group recently added two new officer positions as member liaisons.
Praxis, the political economy group of Hillsdale College, encourages student discussion about the relationship between politics and economics by hosting debates and guest speakers in both fields.
Senior Portia Conant, club president, said the current officers already have plenty to do organizing speakers and events. She hopes these new liaisons can focus on membership involvement.
“We want to work on including our membership in our mission,” Tibbetts said.
She explained that Praxis will be holding a discussion session with refreshments as they did last semester. They also plan on showing a movie and “Stossel,” a one-hour weekly program hosted by journalist John Stossel, for campus, again providing snacks.
“[Stossel] has lighthearted opinions on economic statistics,” Tibbetts said.
Anyone who comes to a Praxis event has a chance to enter their name in a drawing. The chosen member can go to dinner with the officers and the next Praxis speaker.
Conant said she wants students from all over campus to get involved.
“We are interested in trying to do more for a wider audience, talking about liberty and freedom and branch out from poly econ and econ majors,” Conant said.
Professor of Economics and Praxis Adviser Ivan Pongracic said he thinks a lot of Praxis’ growth over the past few years is the growth in the number of political economy and economics majors – nearly 100, which is one-sixth of juniors and seniors who have declared a major.
“We have had excellent attendance and this new group of officers is more dedicated and extremely impressive,” Pongracic said. “The extra money [from Student Fed] is to make Praxis more participatory rather than passive. We want to give members more opportunities to get involved.”
The Charles Koch Foundation currently funds the speakers for Praxis and over the past few years, Pongracic said the quality of these speakers has improved.
“People have an interest because of this economic situation. They have to know what’s going on and understand it,” Pongracic said.
Pongracic also commented on the advantages membership in Praxis offers. He said the greatest opportunity is meeting important people and developing connections. Even if you cannot attend the dinner, Praxis has been holding afterglows in AJ’s, so students can sit, chat and discuss ideas with the speaker.
“These speakers are fairly respected people who have accomplished a lot,” Pongracic said.
He explained that Praxis has opened doors leading to internships and even jobs.
The Koch Internship program is in very high demand, with a low acceptance rate. Nonetheless, Hillsdale students have gotten into this program due to their Praxis involvement.
Pongracic said Praxis has been around at Hillsdale since 1990.