By: Alexandra Daley The second deliberation I attended was called, “School Spirits – Regulating Drinking Culture at Penn State.” This deliberation was not one from Cynthia’s class, but it was an overall very informative deliberation about college drinking. This group tackled a very difficult topic that not only affects Penn State, but college campuses all over the country. The culture of drinking has become a problem countrywide and this group took control and decided to hold their deliberation on college drinking and discussed ways to resolve the problem if possible. The group atmosphere set a good environment for people to speak up about the issues at hand. The moderators based their deliberation off of pre-written questions and the audience responded with ideas on how to resolve or answer the questions at hand. Because it was a very controversial topic with no right or wrong answer, many people had different ideas to add to the deliberation. During the beginning of the presentation, the group took time to introduce themselves and asked the audience to introduce themselves which led for a more open and comforting environment for people to discuss ideas and speak up about certain things that troubled them about this topic. When we got into the discussion portion of each approach, the audience members, including myself, were very talkative and added a lot to the discussion because this topic affects each and every one of us. We are college students, so it was a very relatable topic to discuss and many people had relative ideas on whether the problem behind binge drinking and drinking on campus could truly be resolved.
The three approaches that we discussed as a whole included relaxation of tensions, moderation, and strictness. Each of the approaches had many smaller ideas and conversations within each. The benefits and drawbacks to each approach were discussed. Overall, the audience as a whole brought up many ideas. The overall idea that everyone kept coming back to was that it is inevitable that people are going to drink on college campuses. It is the culture of college and it is one of the reasons people love college so much. This controversial topic cannot be tamed easily, but a lot of the problem has to do with how to handle alcohol properly and what to do in a situation if someone is in trouble. A lot of people should be more educated on their alcohol limits and what they should do if they or one of their friends is caught in a dangerous situation due to the copious amounts of alcohol consumed. Many problems arise from the lack of knowledge of how to help others in trouble, especially when they do not want to get in trouble nor do they want to get their friends in trouble with the institution or the law. Another point that was heavily talked about was the fact that if a school completely banned alcohol, the number of students that would want to attend that school would significantly drop hurting admissions for the school. The deliberation brought up many great ideas on what the main problem is behind alcohol consumption on college campuses. The deliberation brought up many points on why it is such a problem and how it could possibly be changed.
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By: Alexandra Daley The first public deliberation I attended was titled, “No Means No! - How Can We Prevent Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” and it was one of the groups from Cynthia’s classes. The purpose of this deliberation was to bring attention to rape culture on college campuses and the big concerns it raises in the college community. The group did a very nice job of bringing up the main issues and concerns about rape and sexual assault on college campuses and what we can do to help get rid of rape and sexual assault. The group started off with an introduction to their topic and what the deliberation would cover, then they broke up into groups and discussed their three main approaches on how sexual assault can be prevented in the future and what people can do to prevent it. The discussions were guided by questions from the moderators, and the audience members responded with ideas on how to resolve the issues brought to the table. After the discussions in groups, the moderators brought everything together and we discussed, as a whole, the general ideas of the approaches and what can be done to prevent sexual assault. I learned from their presentation and their moderation how to present to a group and how to take action for my deliberation that I did. Watching them gave me a good idea on how to present our questions and how to engage the audience in discussion based off of our topic and approaches.
The three main approaches this group discussed were legislation and reforms, educational programs, and social structures/resources. Each of these approaches had sub-categories/options to go deeper into. The three options discussed for legislation and reforms include action plans for harsher punishments and stricter laws, standardized punishments, and federal level programs/resources. The three options discussed for educational programs include action plans for how the school system is responsible for K-12 sexual assault education, government organizations responsible for K-12 sexual assault education, and outside organizations are responsible for K-12 sexual assault education. Lastly, the three options discussed for social structures/resources include action plans for mandatory training and education for students, flux of non-mandatory resources for students, and structures placed in high risk environments to get people home safely. After all the options and approaches were discussed, the group members sought out the audience to take action outside of the deliberation and voice our concerns for this widespread epidemic of sexual assault. Some of the ways the audience could take action is by attending other deliberations related to a similar topic on sexual assault, visiting websites that discuss the problems at hand, and contacting senators. By going out and taking action, it is more likely that we as a student body and people can prevent and eliminate the high rates of sexual assault on our college campuses. It may seem like a small step to take, simply contacting a representative or visiting a website, but I do believe that these small steps can lead to a larger solution. |
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