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

Page 8 text:

It is 1960; Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy are running for the presidency and Richard Brown, 9, is running around sandlots with a Kennedy button in his baseball cap. It is 1972; Richard M. Nixon and George McGovern are running for the presi- dency, and Richard Brown 21, is running around the University of Miami campus attending classes and simultaneously campaigning for state and local Demo- cratic candidates. Richard Brown is a member of the Poli- tics and Public Affairs Department 213 course - Practical Politics. This is a course which gives politically interested students like Richard the op- portunity to earn academic credit by participating and working with political parties, campaigns, and or organiza- tions. Each student has his own choice of ac- tivity, does the field work (often taking several weeks or months), and submits a final report. The reports outline the student ' s work, sometimes monotonous and routine, sometimes exciting. Jobs range from ringing doorbells and pass- ing out leaflets to highly paid jobs in the strategy levels of various organizations. The reports also comment on these ac- tivities ' validity, and advance construc- tive criticisms. Dr. Virgil Shipley, PPA Department Chairman, explained that the idea of the course is to have students work in the practical field work and then come back to their textbooks and theories and compare the two. And how would Richard feel after the long hours of phone calls and gallons of stale coffee ending in the defeat of his candidates? Well . . . there ' s always next year.

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Signing Up The Vote On Campus It was the first time in America ' s history that 18-21 year-olds had the vote and the power to change the system. Months before the first gavel was sounded in Convention Hall, DM ad- minstrators and students were working together, actively engaged in voter regis- tration. Key UM Advisors, assistants, and secre- taries were deputized by the county to aid in full-time campus registration. A mobile voter registration bus was made available to the student body on several occasions, courtesy of Dade County. Registering for fall classes also meant registering for ' fall elections, as the last big drive to register students saw the registration bus on campus the three days of classes registration.

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X - - f I f i ' T - 1 V Th e New PoliHa A recent UM graduate candidly discusses his role in the ' new politics and the relationship of his academic preparation to political reality