Mike Miller attended the University of California Berkeley as undergraduate between 1954 and 1958. In fall 1957, Miller joined a handful of other students who ran on an informal “slate” of progressive candidates for the Associated Students of the University of California council. The following spring, Miller and several other students established SLATE as a formal student organization which sought to influence not only student government but an array of social and political issues from left-leaning perspective. Miller returned to Berkeley in the 1960s when he took some graduate school classes, worked on campus, and observed the Free Speech Movement. He went on to work for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and for community organizer Saul Alinsky, among numerous other initiatives. In this interview, Miller discusses the following topics: Miller’s family background and leftist politics in San Francisco in the 1940s and 50s; the UC Berkeley campus in the 1950s and sectarian politics; the formation of SLATE and the subsequent activities of that organization; the influence of SLATE on student activism and on larger political trends.