University of Miami - Ibis Yearbook (Coral Gables, FL)

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I .AST WORD D N PROTESTS REMERESS.RO a farewell to latent militancy

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Yaffe: I worked on two of the national Mora- toria against the war, both in October and November of 1969, and on the Student Strike over the Cambodian invasion in the spring of 1970. I also spent a lot of time working with student government towards changing the dis- ciplinary proceedures at UM with an eye toward including some student representation in the proceedings. Passarello: What do you feel was your most valuable experience as an undergraduate in preparing you for your current work? Yaffe: It ' s difficult to pinpoint any one activity. I will say this, though: I don ' t think it was my classroom work. It was much too formal when I was here. Passarello: As a relative newcomer to the polit- ical scene, what effect, if any, do you feel the enfranchisement of the 18-to-21 -year-old age group has had on your immediate future and the future of young people in politics as a pro- fession? Passarello: What exactly do you feel was the value of your prescribed curriculum in your degree program in preparing you for your present work? Yaffe: I think that the tendency today is to teach politics how it was set up to be, and not how it actually operates. Yaffe: As far as I know, registration at UM has been fairly disorganized with regard to really putting large numbers of registered student votes to work on candidates and issues. I ' ve fought to open up registration in Pennsylvania to make it easier for the young people to regis- ter. I can tell you stories about how roads were moved to pass over a certain man ' s land, or to run up the profit for a politically favored con- tractor. Deals are how politics work. Students seem to think that because of the em- phasis on Federal aid to education and the in- volvement of the Federal government in the school, that it is with the President, and Congress that their interests primarily lie. In re- ality, the state controls many and more far- reaching aspects of everyday life. Education, zoning, and highways are only a few of the areas which state and local government direct- ly controls. I can ' t say that I approve of the way things work. But until we begin educating our students of political science in the realities of political life, we present them with a degree that leaves them only half-prepared to do what they set out to accomplish. The pressure, the bribes, the advertising, all of this is not considered a part of politics. Instead, they teach you that The People pull the voting lever, and that ' s how The People vote ....

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i . % $ These things always seem to start at night, you know. Someone hears it first on the radio, late at night, and by two o ' clock in the morning, a small handful of student leaders are just so outraged by the disgrace of it all that they decide they can no longer remain silent. Or permit others who feel the same way to remain silent. Or to let anyone else be blind to the reality. Only the demonstrations following Kent State, or the crowds drawn by Carni Gras, seemed to match the size of this crowd.