OCR Text |
Show A Word from the Director As the director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics, I want to welcome you, the reader, to the first edition of the Hinckley Journal of Politics. This is a very proud moment for the Hinckley Institute and its students. It is the goal and mission of the Hinckley Institute and the board of the Hinckley Journal to bring to political readers an annual first-class journal of undergraduate political research, writing, and essays. The journal will also feature the writing of political leaders. One of my assignments as director of the Hinckley Institute is to read approximately forty intern papers submitted each semester as part of the academic requirements of a Hinckley intern. Over the thirteen years I have enjoyed this reading, I have been struck by the overall excellence of the papers. When thinking of this superior writing, it occurred to me that a much wider audience than just this professor ought to be treated to the student's work. Also, it would be an academic achievement for each of the students who has an article that is published. The world and community are well aware of the preeminence of professorial research and graduate work at the University of Utah. Discoveries and insights are continually being announced in areas such as bioresearch, medicine, genetics, psychology, and, I might add, political science. Professors and their graduate students are making these efforts. There is little in the system to expose the brilliant thinking, research, and ideas of our undergraduate students. With these thoughts, and with encouragement from my colleagues and friends in the Department of Political Science, the Hinckley Journal of Politics is proudly announced at the University of Utah. This finished product is the result of a process almost entirely directed by students. Last year, the Hinckley Institute announced a competition for co-editors of the journal. Undergraduates Peter Carlston and Erica Baca were chosen. After a few meetings with them to describe what we foresaw in a journal, they were left on their own to organize a board to direct their activities, to call for submissions, to review submitted articles, to jury for acceptance, to edit papers, to lay out the journal in form and graphics, and to arrange for publishing and printing. Though the Hinckley Institute staff helped them at every request, the journal is almost entirely to their credit. We hope this is the beginning of a long tradition of undergraduate writing encouraged and edited by undergraduates. Ted Wilson, Director 1 |