Ventura hosted seven high-profile study groups, with topics ranging from the two-party system to the parallels between professional wrestling and politics.

The study groups consistently attracted hundreds of students, many of whom had never been involved in the IOP before.

“He was hands-down the most visible IOP fellow,” says Jordan L. Hylden ’06, another one of Ventura’s IOP liaisons. “He really wanted to get his hands dirty and have a total Harvard experience.”

When he wasn’t cross-dressing for a guest appearance in the Hasty Pudding’s annual production, Ventura was taking his politics to the street.

“We took him up to Currier House one night and there were all these kids coming out of parties waiting for the shuttle,” Rippel says. “He spent an hour and a half just standing out in front, debating with them about things like American policy towards Cuba.”

Such off-the-cuff interactions were common for Ventura, who spent every minute of free time combing the campus for conversation and getting involved in categorically unpolitical Harvard activities.

“I’d eaten dinner over in one of the dorms and we were walking over to the Spee club, and we ran into a bunch of the jocks out on the street having fun on the campus,” Ventura says, “and we got into quite a hectic debate over the war in Iraq. I did not support the invasion of Iraq...I think I caught them a little off-guard because I come off as a macho, tough guy.”

Ventura says he thinks differently about politics and makes a point of calling himself a statesman, not a politician.

“To me, a politician is someone who makes a career out of getting elected,” he says. “I don’t like them, because I think they’re the problem, not the solution. The moment they make a career out of getting elected, they’re no longer in public service, but in self-service. How can someone who’s been elected for 30 years know what’s going on in the private sector, if they don’t live it?”

One might call his retreat to Harvard a dip into the academic contingent, then—a checkup on a population that has traditionally been less than supportive of his “common sense approach” to politics.

Back in March, Ventura told The Crimson that there had been some resistance to his arrival because some people at Harvard had questioned his academic qualifications.

“My answer to them is simple,” he said at the time. “How many of them have ever run a state?”

OUT OF THE RING

Ventura’s reputation as a loud, imposing personality certainly preceded him when he arrived at Harvard’s gates. But those students who worked closest with him say they were shocked at how gentle he turned out to be.

“He gets a certain stereotype, a certain image that’s often associated with him,” Rippel says. “Meeting him in person, I found him to be a terrifically warm and friendly and caring guy, which isn’t something that always comes across.”