Newspapers / North Carolina Central University … / Nov. 29, 1966, edition 1 / Page 5
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Tuesday, November 29, 1966 THE CAMPUS ECHO Page Five HARDY RE-EXAMINES INTERNSHIP IN WASHINGTON By Clarence Hardy I had the honor and the good fortune of being the first NCC student to be chosen by the North Carolina Center for Edu cation in Politics as a Congres sional intern for the past sum mer. I cannot begin to say how grateful I am for having had the opportunity to spend three months in Washington to ob serve the operation of the leg islative branch of our govern ment. I trust that I have lived up to the expectations of those who were responsible for my going to Washington. I also hope, that as a pioneer, I have left no impression with those with whom I worked and fre quently encountered, that would hinder those who come after me from having an even greater in ternship than I had. It was sure ly an experience that I shall long remember. What is an intern and what does an intern do? These ques tion provide the theme of this discussion. The term “intern,” for the average person, brings to mind a medical student doing his un derstudy. A congressional intern too, is an understudy, but not in the strictest sense. Be cause the Congressional intern ship program, as it is today is not very old, the term is still used very loosely. The term in tern has not yet fully acquired its political meaning, or maybe I should say that the public generally is not aware of what a Congressional intern is. Congress in 1965 passed what is commonly called the Intern Act. The act provides each member of Congress $750, in addition to the regular allow ance for staff and other ex penses, to hire a college student to work as a temporary mem ber of the staff for ten weeks. If the Congressman wishes, he may divide the $750 and have two interns for five weeks for $375 each. Before the Intern Bill, Pro fessional Political Science Or ganizations sponsored the in ternships of certain select stu dent in political science or law. These students were assigned to offices of both members of the Senate. The American Political Science Association (APSA) was noted for its outstanding Congressional Fellows. A number of states have Cen ters for Education in Politics (CEP). Each state carries out its program somewhat differently from the others. From what I gather by meeting and talking with other students who were in Washington on CEP type pro grams, North Carolina has the best program, in terms of or ganization, planning, and man agement. NCCEP interns re ceive $759 stipend for 10 weeks. This summer there were 13 of us, 10 of whom were under graduate students and 3 of whom were graduate students. All of us were political science majors. Housing and placements (the offices where we worked) were taken care of by the Center. A. number of other interns had difficulties finding housing. They came from large universi ties like Yale, Harvard, Stan ford and the University of Cali fornia at Berkeley, schools that can have great intern organiza tions with just a little effort. These universities have many students in Washington for the summer, Stanford, to my own knowledge, had more that 80. In spite of the organizational and managerial differences of the varioss organizations (or programs), I think all of the interns had interesting sum- ministrative Assistant, the Leg islative Assistant, and the Spe cial Assistant from the case worker, requesting me to ob tain types of information for them. mers and shared many of the same experiences in terms of general exposure. What does an intern do? The assignments of the average in tern range from dull routine utilitarian-type jobs to extreme ly fascinating research projects. In addition to the things I Interns also get time off from have mentioned, I also got the the office to attend committee chance to work with a lobbying hearings and watch floor de- group—the Central Arizona bates of both the House and the Project Association. This or- Senate. The Dobb hearing, the ganization was the major lob- hearing on the civil rights bill bying group for Mr. Udall’s and the HUAC hearings were Water bill. 1 operated the Xe- alh well attended by interns, rox copy machine, assembled literature and fact sheets, and helped with large mailing of public relation-type material. When there were demonstra tions or educational sessions on the Central Arizona Project Act (CRBP Act), I helped with ar rangements. I have listed but a few of the specific tasks that I performed, but before discuss ing another phase of my experi ence, I will mention my experi ence in working with the De mocratic Study Group (DSG is composed of a majority of the liberal Democratic Congress men). One of DSG’s major ob jective is to help pass the Ad ministration’s. program. Morris Udall is executive secretary of the LSG. When the DSG staff had large mailings to put out, I CLARENCE HARDY f^^^ed with them. I al^o helped to make whip calls. During the Whenever I visited the gallery, civil rights debate on the floor I saw a good number of other of the House many whip calls interns there. had to be made several times a The first week I received day. I enjoyed this experience general orientation to the office, very much. I was given three books to read: one authored by Morris K. Udall, entitled ‘The Job of the Legislator,” a handbook for’ freshmen, congressmen, another by Neil McNeil entitled “Forge of Democracy,’ the House of Representatives and Sim’s Handbook on “How Our Laws Are Made. The first two were very interesting; the last one was helpful and informative. After I had finished reading the three books,: I was given my first research project. My assignment here was to do a comparative analysis with sta tistics on right-to-work states versus non-right-to-work states and to list some points the Con gressman could use in a speech. When I had finished the pro ject, the Congressman okayed it and he was well-pleased with the job I had done. Later, along with another in tern, I did research and drew up an outline for an omnibus election reform bill including the Administration’s proposals, a “conflict of interest” section, and a section on mandatory dis closures of personal assets and campaign contributions and ex penditures. The outline was sent over to Legislature Reference Service and constructed into a bill. I also did a compilation and summary of the Congressman’s voting record to be used in a newsletter and for campaign purposes. I wrote speeches to be inserted in the-record and I also handled some of the constituent mail. Handling the mail was really fascinating. I had never before realized the wide-range of problems for Which constituents turn to Congressman for help. Many of the letters, especially those referring to a specific piece of legislation, required re search; others required a form letter. It was my job to call the vari ous committees and find out the status of certain bills and to call the Government Document Room and acquire copies of specific bills. Notices were placed on my desk from the Ad- Mrs. James J. McLean, of Red Spring, N. C., left, proudly examines a program announcing the coronation of “Miss North Carolina Col lege” with her two daughters, Queen Elizabeth and Carrie, before ceremonies at N C C Crowned “Miss NCC” in elaborate ceremonies was Queen Eliza beth, center, a senior sociology major, who won the honor in cam- puswide election last spring . The relationship between the Intern and the Congressman varies from office to office. It depends a good deal on the per sonality of the menxber to a large extent, whether or not he enjoys having young people around. Good relations depend largely too, on how busy the member is. Again I was very fortunate in many respects. Mr. Udall likes young people and interns and enjoys having them around.Udall had three In terns (Richard Lyons, Soleng Tom, and myself). He supported the Intern Bill. Mr. Udall is a dynamic and very energetic and busy con gressman. He is on the go, at tending meetings, serving on committees, making speeches, introducing and pushing legisla tion and also writing. God only knows how he finds to do all the things he does, and so ef fectively. And still he had time for interns: for discussions, for giving them personal assign ment and okaying them when they are done, for an occasional meal together, radio and tele vision shows, pictures, and for taking interns places with him around and on the Hill and on flights to New York on his pri vate plane. Staff members are general very friendly to interns. They very cordially help to make the interns’ stays interesting and beneficial. They take interns to lunch, have coffee breaks with them, and also work with in terns on some projects. As I look back over the sum mer I spent as a Congressional Intern, I find it quite difficult to single out one most outstand ing event. What I will remem ber most about the past summer is just being on Capital Hill, the number of things I was ex posed to—as some things that I had beforfe realized came clear to me and certainly the differ ence between a lecture on how Congress operates and the reali ty of being there to see it oper ate. The experiences have made a lasting impression on me. SAM'S PAWN SHOP, INC. 122 E. Main Street Phone 682-2573 Instant Loans On Anything Of Value WE LOAN THE MOST Typewriters - Guitars - Clothing Sam Margolis, Mgr. Shorty Allen, Asst. Mgr. e 1 c o m e Students COLLEGE INN ICE CREAM BAR 1306 FAYETTEVILLE STREET DURHAM, N. 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