Following Election Day last November, Stanford students campaigning for Sen. John Kerry, Democratic presidential candidate, were presented with the challenging task of promoting progressive political activism despite their candidate’s defeat.

In an effort to regroup, sophomore Quinn Wilhelmi and political science graduate student Kai Stinchcombe began toying with the idea of pioneering a think tank to facilitate the sharing of research between students and academia, the media and the government.

Three months of exchanging e-mails, making conference calls and holding caffeine-fueled meetings at the CoHo led to the founding of the Roosevelt Institution, the nation’s first student-run think tank, which will make its official debut to the Stanford community at 9 p.m. in Tresidder’s Oak Lounge.

Titled “A Rendezvous with Destiny,” the event will introduce the Institution's mission, showcase several student policy presentations and include a video message from members of the Institution’s sister branch at Yale University. A jazz band will perform and refreshments will be served.

“Progressive students are already generating smart, bold ideas in their classes everyday,” said Stinchcombe, president of the think tank. “The Roosevelt Institution fills a huge, but relatively simple, need by providing an infrastructure to forward those ideas to the public, to influence the decision makers."

Stinchcombe served as president of the Stanford Democrats in the fall.

Wilhelmi also added that “the Roosevelt Institution is about both influencing the current national debate and about training the next generation for leadership.”

Named for three famous American progressives — Presidents Franklin Delano and Theodore Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt — the institution houses 12 issue-focused research centers, with eight to 20 student fellows working at each.

The name of tonight’s event was taken from a line in Franklin Roosevelt’s 1932 victory speech.

“This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny,” he said.

Wilhelmi and Stinchcombe said they believe that his statement applies to today’s generation as well.

The think tank already boasts 200 student members or “fellows.”

The directors of each center within the institution will report to senior Mattie Hutton, the center development director.

The Centers for International Development, Democracy and Health; Environment and Energy; Progressive Religious Perspectives; and Science, Technology, Bioethics and Space announced their respective launches and completed their inaugural policy papers last week.

Each policy center hopes to recruit more student fellows and faculty supporters at tonight’s event.

Hoover Institution fellows at Stanford stressed the importance of quality work in determining the student think tank’s success.

“I think it’s a great thing that students want to become engaged in the policy process,” said Larry Diamond, a Hoover senior fellow and political science professor. “While I don’t dismiss the possibility that [the Roosevelt Institution] can produce innovative research and policy that is creative in its recommendations, they need a quality control process in order to be taken seriously.”

Bill Evers, a Hoover research fellow, said that if Roosevelt Institution fellows produce work “as good or better than those produced by Ph.D.s in professional think tanks, then they will have an influence.”

According to its founders, the Roosevelt Institution is not affiliated with any political party.

“We’re not seeing progressive ideas from any part of the political spectrum,” Stinchcombe said. “We’d encourage leaders from any party to adopt our proposals.”

Wilhelmi, the executive director, emphasized ideology over partisanship.

“Our ideology is progressive — not just Democrats and Republicans but a new kind of politics unique to our generation,” he said. “It’s not about bigger government or smaller government, but better government. Not left, not right, but forward.”

The Roosevelt Institution aims to create a national network of student think tanks that provide organizational infrastructure to get student ideas into the public discourse.

The branch at Yale was formed independently, but chose to adopt the same name as Stanford's chapter last month and a centralized national board of directors will manage the Web site, publications and the ultimate ideology of the institution. The national organization will also provide financial support for each chapter.

Yet according to Wilhelmi, the vast majority of work will be done on the local-university level.

“Students nationwide came up with a similar idea at the same time we did and realized we’d be much stronger working together than we could ever be independently — it’s that kind of broad-based solidarity that speaks to the potential of a progressive student organization,” Wilhelmi said.

Diamond said Roosevelt Institution officers should focus on “a strategy of sustainability,” and recommended that they hire “a skeletal permanent staff” of administrators.

“They’re students — they have other commitments besides just doing policy research,” he added.

Wilhelmi said the Roosevelt Institution is currently operating on “small private donations” and recently finished a business model to present to private donors and grant foundations.

Other Roosevelt Institution features include “a Hoover Watch team to keep tabs on our more-conservative cousin on campus and an Advisory Board of prominent policy advisors and mentors,” said the sophomore Vilas Rao, the public relations director.

Officers are busy working on a full schedule of events for the rest of the year.

“We’re beginning a discussion series that focuses on policy and progressivism — where they intersect, and how progressive research can inform policy,” said sophomore Kevin Hilke, the event director.

Hilke added that a regular luncheon series featuring prominent fellows is also in the works. Both series are scheduled to launch toward the end of the quarter. A gala event featuring a keynote speaker is set for April.