American Democracy Project

Civic Solutions: Problem-Solving Through the Up to Us Case Competition

Equipping faculty and staff to support students’ fiscal thinking, advocacy experience, creative problem solving, and civic engagement experience through participation in the Up to Us Case Competition.

Innovative support to encourage innovative solutions.

AASCU provides participating faculty and staff with resources and learning tools that support students in their journey to develop fiscal thinking, advocacy experience, creative problem solving, and civic engagement skills.

How the case competititon worked.

Faculty and staff at AASCU institutions integrated the nationwide competition into their 2023 spring semester offerings. Teams of students nationwide responded to prompts addressing the rising national debt in the context of growing climate concerns, the affordability of higher education, or rising health care costs by proposing creative yet practical solutions that consider the often competing — yet critical — aspects of the policymaking process: equitable policy development, prudent fiscal management, and long-term political feasibility. More than 30 submissions from a variety of disciplines—including but not limited to marketing, anthropology, political science, economics, social psychology, and pharmacy—showcased how students were able to use their diverse perspectives to craft innovative, thoughtful, and bipartisan policy proposals.

Impact

523

students engaged across 19 campuses to produce policy proposals that addressed the U.S. national debt in the context of growing climate concerns, the affordability of higher education, and rising healthcare costs.

290

communications of proposals were sent to members of Congress.

Over 700

community members engaged in discussing the U.S. national debt through university forums and dialogues.

Participating Campuses

–

Guam

Puerto Rico

U.S. Virgin Islands

Bahamas

Canada

Mexico

Competition Winner

University of Central Arkansas

Aligning Fiscal and Climate Policy

The team chose to address the rising national debt in the context of climate change. Specifically, the team tackled methane emissions from overused landfills and low recycling rates by implementing a landfill tax on businesses to increase federal revenues and incentivize more sustainable practices. Revenue from the tax would be used to fund infrastructure that relates to climate initiatives, including incineration plants and recycling centers. The revenues would also establish a Climate Innovation Fund that would help transition our society to more sustainable practices. A percentage of revenues from the tax would also be used to decrease the nation’s federal debt, which is currently more than $31 trillion. In addressing the national debt, the team aims to put the country in a better position to handle future crises and fund essential federal programs well into the future.

One-pager.