Politics

Learning From Gore

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 24, 2001 / 10:04 PM EST / CBS

Former Vice President Al Gore taught his first class at one of the nation's premier journalism schools - but only off the record.

With security officers keeping news media at bay, Gore delivered his first lecture Tuesday at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in a class called Covering National Affairs in the Information Age.

"As I understand it, the normal policy is that the classes are usually off the record," Gore said later. "I would have had the option to do it on the record, but I think the students will get more out of it, if it's as much as possible a normal classroom experience."

University spokeswoman Suzanne Trimel called the class a learning experience for students, "not a news event."

The irony was not lost on journalism students outside the building, where some three dozen members of the working media were locked out.

"I would have liked to have seen some reporters in there," says Ben Stein, one of the students in the class, in an interview on the CBS News Early Show.

Democrats 101

Al Gore isn't the first unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate to take the path from the campaign trail to the classroom. Some of his predecessors include:

Michael Dukakis,
1988 Democratic nominee
A professor at Harvard University. Has taught at Northeastern University, Florida Atlantic University and UCLA.

Walter Mondale,
1984 Democratic nominee
Was a fellow at the University of Minnesota.

George McGovern,
1972 Democratic nominee
Has taught at Columbia, Penn, Northwestern, Duke and elsewhere.

"We wanted the class to be a real class," says another student, Jay Newton-Small, who tells CBS News he has mixed feelings regarding the ban on reporters. "We are reporters, or at least we're training to be reporters, and it is sort of too bad we couldn't cover the story, too."

Several students said they were warned not to ask any political questions on behalf of professional journalists. An advance e-mail also warned them the class was considered "off the record."

"It definitely goes against what we're taught, but it's Al Gore and we have to accommodate him," says Stein.

"This is not just any professor," added Michael Arnone, another student in the class.

Gore has signed on to teach courses a Columbia, Middle Tennessee State University and Fisk University.

Before the lecture, a guard at the entrance to the building checked student identification cards. Inside, another guard was at the entrance to the floor of the lecture hall checking IDs. Other security workers were stationed at staircases.

So, how was the class?

Student Monica Tedeschi says Gore was "dynamic," told a lot of jokes, and made only one reference to the election.

Tedeschi says when Gore was introduced and a list of his accomplishments was read, the former vice president added jokingly: "and I used to be president."

Stein says Gore was "very insightful. Much different from the Al Gore you see on TV during the presidential campaigns or presidential debates."

"It was not normal school, that's for sure," says Newton-Small, who's looking forward to the next class. "Sort of a trip, to come out of class and have like hundreds of members of the press just asking you questions and wanting to talk to you."