Twenty-three Columbia graduate student reporters are in Manchester, New Hampshire following the candidates, interviewing the man in the street and sitting in John Q. Public's living room as the results from the first election 2000 presidential primary come in.

Is this a new, private news bureau or a hands-on learning experience for a class from the University's School of Journalism? Both, according Craig Wolff, New York Times veteran reporter and the professor of the Journalism School's National Affairs Reporting seminar.

"I was teaching this class during the 1996 primary and just sort of thought, hey, why not go to New Hampshire," said Wolff. "The next thing I knew, my class was acting like a news bureau and stringing for the New York Times." This year's seminar, which was "wildly oversubscribed," already has their news bureau act together with assignments from the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, New York Newsday and a couple of on-line news web sites.

"Covering the primary with our students is sort of like summer camp," describes Wolff. "It is the kind of intense experience that only lasts three or four days but feels like it went on for weeks. What we try to do in Journalism and my whole MO as a professor is to make our classes more than just an academic exercise. I encourage the students to find the people, to go into the living rooms and churches to get the enterprise stories that will make their coverage more than just reporting a horse race."

Wolff says his students go right to work; by Saturday evening they are already following up on their assigned candidate and reporting to him and their news organization. "What I find really interesting is how the students adjust to the situation," said Wolff. "On Saturday they are awestruck and dazzled by the TV news and political celebrities. On Sunday, they are too busy running around, doing their interviews and gathering polls and points. It's by Monday that they start to lift up over the craziness of it all. That's when the learning curve goes way up. They begin to see new ways to get this old job done."

Wolff admits that his news bureau/class system is not perfect and will definitely evolve as it occurs. However, with 23 reporters on tap, he will be heading the largest reporting team in Manchester.