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college students, patrolled by white po-
licemen with dogs; there was "Blowin' in
the Wind" on the hit parade and there
were James Baldwin novels; and finally
there was the culmination of this sum-
mer of civil rights, the August 28 march
on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
It was a giant spectacle, a "gentle ar-
my" said the New York Times. Many peo-
ple were talking of the "festive, Sunday
picnic" atmosphere, and how smoothly
the whole day passed without incident.
But it must be realized that the tensions
beforehand had reached a fever pitch;
restaurants were closed in the downtown
area, and half of Washington stayed home
that day. Lincoln Rockwell had threat-
ened a massive counter-demonstration.
There were rumors on Capitol Hill of
helicopters with tear gas bombs ready
to hover menacingly over the crowd.
Nothing of the sort materialized, but
when it was all over the city of Washing-
ton breathed a sigh of relief which cor-
responded with the catharsis felt in Ne-
gro communities all over the country.
With two other interns, I organized
over 100 Capitol Hill employes to march as
a group from the Capitol to Washington
Monument, there joining the main body
of marchers headed for the Lincoln Me-
morial. We had barbers and folding room
clerks, legislative aides and administra-
tive assistants, all singing and marching
under an improvised banner advertising
"Capitol Hill Employes for Civil Rights."
The banner was hastily constructed with
two sticks and a rubberized baby sheet.
At day's end, the Memorial grounds were
deserted of all human activity, and Abra-
ham Lincoln was left alone again, his
grounds strewn with twenty tons of pa-
per posters, and discarded lunch boxes.
The voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. still
echoed, "I have a dream (a roar from the
crowd) when my child and a white child
in Alabama can learn and play in the
same school in perfect harmony; (anoth-:
er roar) I have a dream . . ." And then
the deep slow tones of A. Philip Ran-
dolph, the chairman of the march com-
mittee: "We are in the vanguard of a
great social revolution . ." These words
and feelings were carried back with every
bus and car leaving Washington that eve-
ning, to Albany, Georgia, and to Engle-
wood, New Jersey, and to towns and
neighborhoods all over the country.
THERE ARE TWO POINTS which I can
cite in conclusion, and which help to
give an overall evaluation of the sum-
mer. Analyzing what I learned about the
government, the first point is that few
classrooms are able to teach the "per-
sonalized" approach to government, an
approach which is .learned in the first
few weeks in Washington. Legislators be-
come identified with faces and not mere-
ly names. Issues become identified with
names and not merely groups. Every sen-
ator's personality is known, and his
friends in the senate are identified. One'
learns how he will react to every issue.
Black and white preconceptions slowly
fade into gray, as former philosophical
"villains" show they are honestly trying
to grasp an issue, while some former "her-
oes" reveal themselves as weakling op-
portunists. And the personality element
makes many issues more meaningful and
interesting as the decisions and processes
of government unfold as products of rec-
ognizable human figures. The intern in
Washington is constantly exposed to this
process, meeting and talking with and
hearing stories about various govern-
ment officials. The list of government
officials I had an opportunity to see and
hear is extensive. For example, one after-
noon an intern softball team played the
White House staff. I was pitching (also
playing was Michigan student Chris Coh-
en and Ann Arbor residents Tom Rowe
and Mike Staebler) against New Fron-
tiersmn in sweatshirts and Bermuda
shorts, among them Secretary of the In-
terior Stewert Udall, Ted Sorenson, Spe-
cial Counsel to the President Meyer Feld-
man, and other lesser notables. Unfor-
tunatly, they were in too good physical
shape (from fifty-mile hikes) and whip-
ped us handily. Afterwards, all the in-
terns went into the White House, changed
in the locker room downstairs, and then
discussed world affairs for an hour with
McGeorge Bundy, probably the most im-
portant of the President's close advisors.
Experiences like these added immensely
to my already great appreciation of the
summer in Washington.
The second point is more vague, but in
the long run I believe more important.
Every employe working in a congression-
al office is made to be aware of every
major issue facing our government to-
day. The intensity of the issues is accen-
tuated by the sensitivities of the Wash-
ington nerve centers designed to handle
them, and by the various lobbying groups
attempting to bring pressure to bear from
all angles of the-argument. The person
exposed to these forces cannot help but
gain by the experience. I was especially
fortunate to be in the office of a legis-
lator who is genuinely concerned with
problems facing the country today and
who approached the difficulties of his
office with intelligence and integrity. I
was able, therefore, to appreciate how de-
manding our complex government system
can be, even for highly competent public
servants.
HOPEFULLY, the University of Michi-
gan will someday have an internship
program which will place qualified Mich-
igan students in government offices. At
present, several students, faculty and ad-
ministrators are discussing both the ra-
tionale and the practical feasibility of a
program, which would be tremendously
rewarding for the individuals who took
part but for the University as well. After
all, ten thousand college interns can't be
wrong.
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V 4
_#.
PLAN FOR A WASHINGTON SEMESTER
By CHRISTOPHER COhEN
WORKING for the federal government
during the summer is an interesting
and enlightening experience but one
which few Michigan students have been
able to have. This is not so much due to
lack of interest as to lack of information
about how, when, and where to apply for
jobs in Washington, D.C.
During this past summer, the federal
government employed 7500 other tem-
porary workers in Washington, most of
them university and college students.
Only about 25 of these students came
from the University of Michigan. Many
Eastern colleges and universities have or-
ganized programs for their students who
work summers in the nation's capitol.
Yale, for example, has a program that
brought 75 student "interns" to Wash-
ington for jobs and coordinated lecture
and tour activities last summer.
In order to eliminate the lack of in-
formation, I propose that the University
develop a Washington intern program
which would give similar aid to our stu-
dents in finding available jobs, arranging
living accommodations, and in establish-
ing discussion sessions with leading gov-
ernment officials during the summer in
Washington.
A T THE PRESENT time there are four
intern programs operating in the
state of Michigan. One is a Lansing in-
tern program run by Michigan State
University. This program places MSU
students in jobs with the Michigan legis-
lature and state agencies in the capitol
city.
A second Lansing intern program is
operated on a cooperative basis by Mich-
igan's three major universities. Four
graduate students and law graduates are
chosen from a nationwide competition to
spend one year working for the Michigah
Senate. This is similar to existing pro-
grams in Indiana and California. The
four are assigned to the Senate Business
Committee and the chairman, John
Fitzgerald (R-Grand Ledge) refers them
to individual senators. Applications are
accepted on a national basis although
the four interns are currently from this
state. Three are from the University of
Michigan and the fourth is from Mich-
igan State University. The three pro-
fessors who operate the program are
Eugene Feingold (U of M), Charles Press
(MSU), and Dale Vineyard (Wayne
State). Every Monday these three men
journey to Lansing to participate in a
seminar with the four graduates on state
legislative behavior. In addition to re-
ceiving an annual salary of $4000, paid
for jointly by the Ford Foundation and
the Michigan Senate, the students re-
ceive four hours of academic credit.
A third Lansing intern program is op-
erated by the Michigan Committee for
Education in Politics (MCEP). Winners
of the state-wide competition spend one
week working for members of the state
legislature. Any college student may ap-
ply for this program which usually sends
six Republicans and six Democrats to
Lansing during March or April, usually
during Easter vacation.
A fourth intern program is also oper-
ated each summer in Washington and
Lansing by the MCEP, the successor to
the Michigar Citizenship Clearing House,
which originated the plan in the sum-
mer of 1961. Students are chosen for
jobs with the Michigan Chamber of
Commerce, the AFL-CIO, the Republi-
can State Central Committee, the Demo-
cratic State Central Committee, one
Democratic U.S. Senator, one Congress-
man from each party, and the Republi-
can Policy of the U.S. House of Repre-
sentatives.
THE PROGRAM would be administered
at the University of Michigan by an
intern counselor. The counselor could be
a faculty member whose knowledge and
experience with Washington procedures
and personalities would facilitate the
program's operation. An intern coun-
selor should be available on campus for
one or two days a week throughout the
academic year to answer questions from
students, to correspond with offices and
agencies in Washington, and to screen
applicants.
The overall program would be under
the general supervision of a faculty ad-
visory committee, drawn perhaps from
each of the departments in the College
of Literature, Sciences and Arts.
AN INTERVIEW would be scheduled to
determine the particular phase of
government work most interesting to the
candidate-legislative or executive, the
particular offices he had in mind (spe-
cific senators, congressmen, committees,
agencies), and the kind of work the stu-
dent is best prepared for in terms of his
previous summer jobs, academic back-
ground, etc.
Resumes of the student's qualifications
would be sent to offices and agencies,
either legislative or executive, where the
candidate would seem to "fit in" best.
Any single department, agency, or in
some cases, divisions or bureaus, in
Washington might receive resumes of
from three to twenty students. From
this point on, the decision would rest with
the Washington "employer."
Most Congressmen hire only students
whose homes are in the Congressmen's
state. Students would be informed how
to do their part in obtaining political
clearance for possible employment in the
Senate or the House. Ideally, each Con-
gressional office would pay its interns at
the prevailing rate of $50 weekly. In a
minority of cases an interested member
of Congress can pay only part of this
salary, or none at all. If the contem-
plated program at the University of
Michigan could be shown to be a con-
tinuing and successful program, it might
later be possible to request supplementary
PROFESSOR ARTHUR BROMAGE, chairman, Department of Po-
litical Science: The Department is extremly interested in the program and
is enthusiastic about it. We believe there should be a more formal method
of recruiting college undergraduates here and funnelling them to jobs in
Washington. We intend as a department to assist in every way possible.
We feel this is properly a college-wide program to attract students from
all areas of study. One greatest education in life is practical experience,
either in politics or in public administration. Book learning is no sub-
stitute for working in this type of pratical experience.
DEAN WILLIAM HABER, College of Literature, Science and Arts:
We will contine to explore the possibilities for this program. It's an ex-
cellent ;dea and it could be a great program, as it would enrich the edu-
cational experience of students at the University and would provide some
realism to the theoretical studies which students undertake on the cam-
pus. This plan merits the most sympathetic conisideration and hopefully
we will be able to implement it.
ASSOCIATE DEAN JAMES ROBERTSON, College of Literature,
Science and the Arts: This is a wonderful proposal because it allows
students significant experience with the people and programs relevent to
government activity which the campus cannot provide. It's eminently
educational.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR EUGENE FEINGOLD, Department of
Political Science: This program is a desirable one. There is a great de-
mand from students interested in these jobs. Up to now all I've been able
to do is su gest where students might write for most of them are unable
to go to Washington. This is an excellent chance for students to have
a satisfying experience while they are earning money.
Page Eight
The interns, Lowenistein and
Cohen
help from private sources or foundations
to support part of the students' expenses
in connection with jobs with the Con-
gress. Even without such support, some
students might be found who would be
willing to work "for experience only" in
such cases.
FIRST ASSIGNMENTS would be made
shortly after Easter vacation.
A list of suggestions for living accom-
modations could be furnished to new
interns as they are assigned to positions.
Interns would be urged to join together
in small groups in order to benefit from
the exchange of experience.
Some consideration should be given to
offering university credit for the intern's
summer work.
I T IS MY feeling that such a program
would provide a challengingaand edu-
cational experience for students at the
University of Michigan in either the
legislative or executive branches of the
federal government. It would enrich their
on-campus education and would give
them the opportunity to begin to use
some of the skills which they have
acquired in the course of their college
work.
The program might even encourage
some of the participants to become active
in public service or to take employment
with federal, state or local governments
upon completion of their college train-
ing.
A detailed draft for this Washington
Intern Program has been circulated
among members of the University ad-
ministration and has drawn considerable
favorable comment and enthusiasm. It
appears that while everyone is sym-
pathetic, there is some question as to
whether adequate funds for the pro-
gram will be immediately available.
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE
MAGA INE
Vol. V, No. 5 Sunday, November 10, 1963