Campaign Operations Lab
We want to work with UA to build the campaign management equivalent of law students’ mock trials.
Two teams would run the same fictional city council race using the software real campaigns use. With six weeks, a fixed budget, and more doors than their volunteers can cover, one team might hire canvassers while the other reaches voters by text. Each would show whom it reached, what it spent, and why.
We propose starting with one workshop, designed with input from faculty, as the School prepares to open in fall 2027. Our working name: Campaign Operations Lab.
A3Q builds campaign software in Birmingham. Two of our founders are UA alumni, Chief Client Officer Rashmee Sharif and Chief Financial Officer Cecil Bostany.
What students could do
- Draw turf and assign doors to canvassers.
- Follow a donation from processing to compliance.
- Build a fundraising call list from past giving.
- Choose an audience and draft a message.
Students would use fictional records, with messaging, payments, and filing operating in a mock setting.
Design-driven by your faculty, built by us.
UA faculty choose what students should learn, how to assess it, and where the workshop fits in a course.
A3Q builds the fictional race, prepares the instructor materials, and brings campaign professionals into the classroom to advise students.
Individual Workshops or a Series Curriculum
| Stage | Student assignment |
|---|---|
| Strategy | Estimate the votes needed to win and write a strategy memo explaining how to reach them. |
| Operations | Allocate a field budget, assign turf, and turn in a field plan and reconciled ledger. |
| Compliance | Prepare a mock Alabama filing and explain any corrections. |
| Capstone | Run the same race as another team and defend your decisions before faculty and campaign professionals. |
The same race could support assignments across UA, from electoral strategy in Political Science and messaging in Communication and Information Sciences to accounting at Culverhouse. Faculty could also adapt it for entrepreneurship at The EDGE or civic leadership at the Blackburn Institute.
What would you want your students to learn?
Tell Rashmee about a decision you’d like students to practice. We can build the first workshop around it.
University of Alabama alumna
This proposal is for discussion. It does not represent an existing partnership or endorsement by The University of Alabama.