UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s students and faculty instructors in Rhetoric and Civic Life, a first-year honors course in traditional and digital communications, kickoff Deliberation Nation on campus and downtown State College on Tuesday, Feb. 24 with many events free and open to the public throughout the week.
Deliberation Nation is a week-long series of deliberative discussions on topics pertaining to campus life, including sexual assault and police relations, to national issues, such as vaccinations and the economy. Multiple events will take place throughout each day at the New Leaf Initiative, Schlow Library, Webster's Book Store, and the Common Place. Rhetoric and Civic Life is sponsored by the Center for Democratic Deliberation, in partnership with the Paterno Fellows Program and the Schreyer Honors College.
Students will work in groups to devise and frame a deliberative discussion that addresses issues important to the community in which they live and learn. They learn the differences between debate, conversation, and deliberative discussion. They also discover the importance and difficulty of framing issues fairly to promote understanding and to help participants to reflect meaningfully on community values and the choices they face. A full listing of the events can be found at here.
The Center for Democratic Deliberation (CDD) will highlight each day's events on their main website and their Facebook page. Individuals may use #DeliberationNation to comment, discuss, and reflect on events. For more information, contact Jessica O’Hara, director of Rhetoric and Civic Life, at jjo12@psu.edu.
The Center for Democratic Deliberation is a nonpartisan organization promoting more robust public discussion and engaged democratic citizenship. CDD is a Center of Excellence within the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, both in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State.