"Convinced me to be a government major"

I took Ted’s intro to American Government course as a freshman. It was the fall of 1976 and a presidential election campaign was underway. Ted tried hard to convince us NOT to vote as at that time the difference between the parties was insufficient in his view to present a real choice.

By voting we were consenting to a system that did not provide enough differentiated choice. Well, that course convinced me to be a government major, though given today’s political polarization perhaps less of choice was not so bad a situation...

Scott Sklar

College of Arts and Sciences

Cornell Class of 1980