Two former congressmen visited with various student groups and classes on campus Monday and Tuesday.

Former Rep. Dan Miller of Florida and former Rep. Nick Lampson of Texas last served in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 and 2009, respectively.

Both are part of a nonprofit organization called The United States Association for Former Members of Congress. They are participating in the organization’s Congress to Campus program that allows former members to interact with college students and educate them about the legislative branch.

Miller said the purpose of their visits is to bridge the gap between academia and the real world of politics.

“We volunteer our time, the expenses are picked up by the university,” he said. “We encourage people to get involved in public service.”

This is the fifth time the program has organized members to visit ACU campus, and the visit was organized by Dr. David Dillman, professor of political science.

Their itinerary included meeting with students, administrators, local Abilene business groups, students at Abilene High School, the College Democrats, the College Republicans and the Pope Fellows.

Lampson said he hopes their visit has students thinking more about what service they can provide in the future.

“They have to learn that they are preparing themselves to be leaders of our community,” Lampson said. “We’re done. We’re has-beens. We need a future set of leaders that understand enough of the history of what’s going on and the creation of the problems that they’re going to inherit and they need to be forming opinions on how they’re going to fix them. We hope that this has them thinking earlier about what service they can provide in the future.”