Last week, State Senator Jo Comerford visited Professor Bridgette Davis’ Policy Methods course to discuss policy challenges in western Massachusetts. Comerford, who represents the Hampshire, Franklin, and Worcester district, engaged in sit-down conversations with students on topics including housing, economic development, education, and regional rail. She also fielded questions on policy issues at both the local and national level.
The visit was part of the course’s focus on policies intended to address current and future challenges in western Massachusetts. One of the background sources for class research was a MassLive op-ed written by Comerford, State Representatives Natalie Blais and Susannah Whipps titled “11 ways to defy the WMass ‘ghost towns’ of the future”. The op-ed, which was a response to earlier media coverage about research predicting significant population loss and associated challenges, laid out a pathway for strengthening communities in western Massachusetts.
After the visit, Comerford expressed gratitude and excitement for the future. “Courses like this are reasons to hope. We’re going to do everything we can to keep government moving in the right direction, but from what I saw in this class, we need to pass that baton pretty soon to these young leaders with their innovative, intuitive, strategic, and heart-centered approaches [to policy].”
Professor Davis also reflected on the importance of linking local policy work with larger challenges. “Rooting our work in the vision and model that State Senator Comerford laid out helps students see that there is real work to do on big global problems by focusing on problem-solving and governance at even a hyper-local level. Hopefully, our students will leave SPP and Western Massachusetts with the confidence and capacity to make very important moves on seemingly intractable problems. Connecting young aspiring leaders with the work their elected officials are actually doing on the ground is just one small way to keep us all engaged in building a responsive democracy that delivers for constituents.”