This J-term experience is an opportunity for students to get hands-on, mixed method policy research data gathering practice. The Director of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District has asked for policy options for changing its rationing policy for residential, business, and nonprofit users in the event of continued draught. Students in IPSG 8501 have developed a research design and we will implement that design during J-term. Students will get rigorous training in interviewing, running focus group discussion, survey implementation, data documentation, cleaning, and organization. Students will also have an opportunity to interact with leading policy makers and decision-makers on the peninsula. Analysis of the data will occur in Spring’s Advanced Topics in Policy Analysis (Depaolis and McCleery) or Advanced Data Analysis (Murphy).