Developing Interest in Student Government
J. Robert Cooke discusses how he became involved in student government at NC State.
Interview on 2011-08-22 00:00:00 -0400
Transcript
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I had been active in that in high school and had served as student body president, which was quite a reach for me because I was a shy country boy.
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That was partly enabled by vocational agriculture which had a course in parliamentary procedure so I learned how to conduct a meeting,
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and that has been one of the-. It's something you can learn in about a day that has been useful to me throughout my life
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and I cannot imagine not having had that tool at my disposal. So I had that experience of having been president there and I was selected for membership in Alpha Zeta,
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which is the agriculture leadership group, so I had been involved in student government here and was interested in it and served as vice president and then as president.
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When I ran for vice president, Jim Hunt-Gov. Jim Hunt later-bought some campaign buttons for me . . . Then the next year I just took a felt tip marker
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and marked out "vice" and used them all over again. But that was a big boost to my ego to have him. He had served as president for two years
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and then Eddie Knox from my same high school but a couple of classes ahead of me was president and I was vice president.
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I just enjoyed the give and take and the strategy and how to get things done, so it was good entertainment.
This video is an excerpt from a longer interview. Contact the Special Collections Research Center to request the transcript of the full interview.
