Elections Past & Grinnell’s Program in Practical Political Education (PPPE)

These images, from 1960, show students participating in full-blown, mock conventions for the Democratic party and the Republican party, as part of Grinnell College’s “Program in Practical Political Education” (PPPE) that ran from 1959 to 1970. Under the leadership of Prof. C. Edwin Gilmour, and funded largely by outside grants, the PPPE aimed to encourage students to become involved in day-to-day politics, even partisan politics, through a mixture of training, summer internships, funded fieldwork, political science “labs” that involved campaigns, election, or administrative experience, and a steady stream of state, local, and national politicians who came to Grinnell to give talks, teach short courses, or to work with students for a more extended period of time as “politicians-in-residence.” On election nights, the PPPE “caucus room” became the place on campus to watch coverage of the incoming election results.