When Systems Engineering Prof. Jim Lark is watching the game, he's not having a Bud. That's because he's enjoying a unique brew he made himself.
"I've brewed some beers that I would stack up with the best in the world," Lark said with pride.
Beer brewing, however, occupies only a small part of the time Lark spends outside of academia. With the rest of his free time, he searches for ways to advance individual freedom and promote personal responsibility. As the national chair of the Libertarian Party, Lark stands firm in these two principles which form the basis of the LP platform.
"I tell my friends I have two full-time jobs and I only get paid for one," he said.
As LP chair, Lark works to make his party more powerful, prominent and moving in the right direction, and often, this has meant putting aside his scholarly projects.
LP delegates elected Lark this past summer during the party's national convention. His unpaid position at the head of the party will last two years until the next LP convention in 2002.
Lark's supporters say they hope he will take the party reigns and bring together the different factions.
"The chair, in my opinion, is rather like the captain of the team," Lark said, continuing his analogy to apply to his party's need for growth. "It's like going into a weight room and pumping yourself up to the point where you're now ready to take on the big boys of politics."
Throughout Lark's life, he has proven he can take the initiative and succeed.
Back in 1975, before Lark entered Virginia Tech, he taught himself calculus because his high school did not offer it. He did not waste his time in college either.
After taking 25 credit hours each semester and enrolling in summer classes, Lark graduated with a math degree in only one and a half years.
He left Tech with more than just a degree; he also came away with an awareness of Libertarianism. Lark became fascinated with Libertarian ideas during the 1976 presidential election. One of his professors who followed Libertarian politics inspired Lark to get involved.
Lark said his strong belief in the "animating principles" of the LP encouraged him to become politically active.
"I can't ask other people to do what I'm not willing to do myself," he said.
To say Lark is politically active is to understate his level of involvement with the LP. In addition to serving as the national chair, he also works with the LP of Virginia and the Jefferson Area Libertarians in Charlottesville.
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It is only appropriate that Lark also serves as the national campus coordinator for the LP at the University.
When Lark was a graduate student at the University, he founded Students for Individual Liberty in 1987 and University Libertarians in 1989. Now Lark advises all seven Libertarian student organizations, which collectively are called the Libertarian Coalition. He believes targeting students will strengthen the party in the long run.
"They may be more inclined to listen to ideas," Lark said of young adults who are not yet set in their political ideologies.
Matt Heiser, a second-year College student and president of both the Liberty Coalition and Students for Individual Liberty, said Lark can bring in many prominent speakers because of his strong connections within the LP.
"He's able to impart a good deal of knowledge to us about the political aspects of Libertarianism," he said.
Lark officially joined the LP in 1984 before he started the two groups Heiser now heads and said his background in mathematics influenced his political philosophies.
"The beauty that you see in a well-crafted, logical argument biases you in the direction of putting a value on rational, consistent thinking," Lark said.
The LP, whose guiding principles are individual liberty and personal responsibility, provides a consistent framework for this type of thinking, he added.
Lark applies logical thought to almost all aspects of his life, including scholarly research, political philosophy and even sports. His sports experience includes his time as technical advisor to the Radford men's soccer team.
Lately, Lark's academic and political commitments have left him little free time for such leisurely activities. That does not stop him from pursuing other interests, however.
Lark has several ideas for books he would like to write. Possible topics include the ways societies handle risk and the mathematics of financial engineering.
But right now Lark has a more important task to deal with - running the LP while fulfilling his duties as a professor.
As the national chair, Lark hopes to raise the number of active LP members.
"My hope is that we're laying the foundation for explosive growth," he said.
Lark, who believes the LP would benefit from a stronger, more organized infrastructure, also hopes to provide "a strategic vision for the party."
But Lark knows it may be a long time before the LP has as much political clout as the Democrats or the Republicans.
"Intellectual revolutions sometimes proceed inch by painful inch," he said.
Lark sees his role in this revolution as setting the stage for the future.
"My hope is that the next LP chair will be the best we've ever had," he said. "I will have laid the foundation"
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