The latest addition to the UChicago community is situated in a cozy house on the corner of 57th and Woodlawn. No, it’s not a frat house—it’s the office of The University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics (IOP).
Inspired by the vision of its director, David Axelrod, former Chief Campaign Strategist for the President, the IOP has kicked off its inaugural year with its “Full Access 2012: Inside the Obama and Romney Campaign” speaker and event series. As a politics fanatic, I’ve been incredibly lucky to be part of the IOP team in leading this series and developing upcoming student engagement programs.
Imagine a space bursting with energy and excitement, with people running in and out with supplies to prepare for a panel discussion, with campaign strategists casually chatting over coffee and political journalists collaborating with students on a new project—this is what I look forward to every time I walk in to the IOP house. The IOP encourages an open environment focused on learning, engagement, and action, and I am amazed by how much access students like me have to both the dedicated IOP staff and eminent political practitioners. I can’t even begin to describe the rush of discussing anything and everything politics with people so knowledgeable and experienced in the field.
I had the opportunity to participate in one of the most amazing experiences of my life last week through the IOP’s Fellows Ambassador Program. The Fellows Program is one of the integral aspects of the Full Access series and invites pollsters, media strategists, journalists, fundraisers, and correspondents from both the Obama and Romney campaigns to spend a week at the university and allow students to gain insight on specific angles of the 2012 campaigns.
As an Ambassador, I was behind the logistics for my fellow’s week and planned a variety of opportunities for him to engage with students on campus about his work. As excited as I was in anticipation of his arrival, the real excitement began on Sunday when I first met him for dinner. Listening to his stories about the campaign and the people he worked with, his experiences as a strategist, and his candid opinions about politics blew me away. His references to important political events and people from an insider’s perspective were just outstanding. What impressed me the most was how at the end of it all, he was just a normal human being like any of us, and someone who I could have conversations with about college life, sports, music, family, and the future.
I learned an incredible amount about politics from my fellow over the course of the week through small discussions with other students about the campaign, larger events with campus organizations, and the one-on-one time I spent with him. Despite the overwhelming and busy nature of the week, I now cherish the eye-opening moments I experienced. I’ll never forget the night I watched the State of the Union with my fellow in his office. We dissected every sentence of the speech together and analyzed the President’s key messages, and to do this with someone so involved in the President’s campaign strategy team was incredible.
In addition to the Fellows program, the IOP hosts several speakers (we just had Newt Gingrich a few days ago), events, and discussions as part of the Full Access series. For more information, check out: http://politics.uchicago.edu/