NextGen Competition Showcases Harris Student Innovation in Public Pension Policy

Taking place from August 17 to 19, the NCPERS-Harris NextGen Competition invited teams from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy to pitch their ideas live during the 2025 Public Pension Funding Forum, an event hosted at the UChicago’s David Rubenstein Forum, which featured work from Harris Public Policy MPPs.

During the contest, Hassan Ul Haq, MPP’25, and Melodie Slaughter, MPP’25 – who were selected as the winning team – presented a proposal to sell 3,000 of Chicago’s vacant lots to return them to productive use, potentially yielding $29-45 million in property tax revenue over ten years. Their plan also addressed city maintenance costs and looked to control neighborhood blight in historically disadvantaged areas. Designed to be a community‑centered approach, the proposal strategically reinvests in neighborhoods while expanding the property tax base.

Lianxia Chi, Tarini Dewan, Liwen Gu, and Theresa Tuyangzhen Li, all MPP’25, meanwhile, proposed a rush-hour tolling system on North Lake Shore Drive, designed to generate $2.2–2.3 million annually and improve traffic flow during rush hour, with the revenue generated to be dedicated to pension funding and transit enhancements.

“Both teams’ proposals demonstrated both analytical rigor and a deep awareness of the real-world consequences of pension funding challenges,” said Research Professor Justin Marlowe, director of the Center for Municipal Finance at Harris. “This work highlights the importance of bridging academic inquiry with practical solutions that serve communities and safeguard retirement security.  And it also showcases the distinctive kinds of hands-on opportunities available to Harris students as they prepare for the future.”

“By engaging bright, motivated students, we're investing in the future of our industry and ensuring that public pensions continue to evolve and thrive for generations to come,” Hank Kim, executive director of NCPERS, said.

Judges for the NextGen Competition included Tim Blair of the State Employees’ Retirement System of Illinois, Tiffany Junkins of the Municipal Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago, and Kevin Reichert of the Policemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago.

Ul Haq and Slaughter will receive a shared $5,000 honorarium and undertake a research internship with NCPERS, culminating in a publication of their work for the broader public pension community. In presenting the award to Slaughter and Ul Haq, the judges emphasized how narrowly the competition was won and complemented all contestants.

The student proposals grew out of a Harris Policy Lab, the popular course offering where teams of second-year students work with a real-world client to propose solutions to policy questions, which was supported by NCPERS, that challenged participants to explore a wide spectrum of strategies for strengthening public pensions. Throughout the Winter Quarter course, students examined tools such as pension obligation bonds, redevelopment of vacant properties to expand the tax base, governance reforms to improve pension system oversight, economic development approaches to bolster long-term funding, and targeted tax measures to address liabilities.

Paula Worthington, faculty advisor for the Policy Lab, observed that students really “jumped” on ideas developed previously during the 2024 Harris Policy Innovation Challenge and extended and deepened the work, laying the groundwork for summer 2025’s NextGen competition.  “Student teams sharpened their proposals over the summer, with input from me as well as expert mentors selected by NCPERS.”

“While I knew the pension deficit was significant, I hadn't realized the full depth of the problem until this Policy Lab project,” said Slaughter. “My family is from Chicago, and I've seen firsthand how the pension shortfall affects Black communities. A significant share of Black professionals work in government and rely on pensions, something I grew up aware of through relatives and neighbors who placed great importance on their retirement security,” she added.

“Melodie and I wanted to continue to delve into the problem and explore it further, and that is why we decided that participating in the NextGen Competition was an attractive option,” said Ul Haq.

At Harris, students are encouraged to explore and prepare for a wide array of professional pathways through targeted, hands-on opportunities that connect policy training with industry practice. The NCPERS-Harris NextGen Competition and the annual Harris Policy Innovation Challenge, another student contest whose 2024 version also dealt with Chicago’s pension issue and helped inspire NextGen, are just two recent examples in the public finance arena.

“Careers in areas surrounding municipal finance are an increasingly popular path for Harris students,” said Krisinda Doherty, Associate Dean, Professional and Career Development at Harris. “With opportunities like this competition, students gain real-world experience and see first-hand how public finance can make a real difference in peoples’ lives supporting infrastructure to education to public safety.”

Harris offers a suite of “Careers In” courses designed to introduce students to different industries including municipal finance. These courses provide a foundation in sector knowledge, hands-on exposure to job skills, and access to practitioner networks, while also helping students develop the skills needed to secure internships and launch meaningful careers.

The Careers in Municipal Finance course, in particular, provides the groundwork for students to engage in initiatives like the NCPERS–Harris NextGen Competition, where they put classroom insights into practice by crafting bold, evidence-based proposals for tackling public pension challenges.

And, according to the judges, it’s not inconceivable that those proposals could one day be put into practice. “You never know when one of these [proposals] may land, or a variation may land,” Junkins told PlanSponsor. “A program like this certainly can go a long way with the trajectory of the city of Chicago.”