The course is broken into nine weeks. I'll preview each of them for you briefly now. The forward you have viewed already is a broad course description, similar to the preview of a new movie, inviting you into this theater. Here in week one of the course, our goal is simply to provide you with a roadmap. Here is the table of contents for the class. You can view these documents online as well as receive instructions regarding quizzes and discussion boards. Later in the semester, we'll invite you to participate further. Again, we want to break down walls. We want to make use of new technology that enables us to work together and learn from each other. And it is highly appropriate for a course that is also called the engagement in public policy challenges of our time. Next week, marked week two on your syllabus, will focus on future planning. I'll walk the 120 students in the room through an exercise the US intelligence community engages in with its partners around the world. It's called GT 2030, an exercise in future planning we share with potential allies and adversaries abroad, from the PRC to South Africa, from Delhi to Doha. You'll hear at the outset from UVA students as they explore what the future might hold. In fact, if you want to know what it feels like in this classroom, look closely at week two, part two, and you'll get a strong sense of the student experience. Week three features a presentation on issue framing and media strategy by a veteran politics professional, former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers. She offers wisdom gleaned from sources as diverse as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to former President Bill Clinton. Week four delves deeply into one of the most divisive issues in current US public policy. It discusses healthcare policy in ways the most effective way of containing cost while protecting consumer choice. This features Batten school professor Eric Patashnik. Week five continues the Batten greatest hits theme with a presentation from Professor Ray Scheppach. He'll help viewers, abroad and at home, understand the substantial powers wielded by local authorities who govern our 50 very different states. This is especially important with the current political gridlock in Washington. Because a lot of issues are seeing consensus hammered out at the local level. Week six looks at the crucial bilateral relationship between the People's Republic of China and the United States. What are the opportunities and challenges ahead for our vital ties? Here, we'll be fortunate to learn from Batten's founding dean and one of America's foremost China scholars, currently university professor, Harry Harding. Week seven offers contrasting views from Virginia legislators, including Republican Tom Davis, who led many successful national congressional campaigns, joined by his successor, leader of newer house Democrats, Representative Gerry Connolly. We'll hear both points of consensus and partisan divides. Week eight features an extraordinary session. The only Virginian ever to be elected Mayor, Governor, and United States Senator, TIm Cain enters this classroom and engages students in a real time discussion of issues in war and peace. He seeks advice on how to advance his proposals to revisit issues surrounding the respective powers of the President and Congress. Week nine concludes the class with the presentation I'll give on preparing leaders for the public policy challenges ahead. We'll close the loop on the public policy agenda we seek to define in the classroom discussion.