Taking part in, and attending another deliberation was a true privilege, as it gave me an incredible opportunity to discuss and facilitate discussion about two topics that matter to me. The deliberation in which I moderated was about single-use plastics, and how we can cut back on the use of them on college campuses. The deliberation I attended was how to educate and dismantle the crushing issue of binge drinking on college campuses. One of the first important concepts that facilitate a good deliberation, according to Gastil, is the adequate distribution of speaking opportunities. In our deliberation, there was a good mixture of people who wanted to speak up throughout. There were certainly 5 or 6 voices that were more dominant throughout, but overall, the discussion was between many people from different grades and roles in the community. In the binge drinking deliberation, almost every single person present at the deliberation was involved in the discussion.

Gastil also notes another important part of deliberating is that groups “consider other ideas and experiences.” In our deliberation, there were many good points brought up. Veterinary Biomed sophomore Kelly Boland pointed out the importance of staff willing to teach students about the Green2Go option. “My roommates and I would make it a competition my freshman year” Boland commented. This was an aspect we hadn’t even considered, the fact that many students don’t even know how Green2GO and other sustainable options work, and that it takes enthusiastic and passionate staff to convey the importance of going green. In the binge drinking deliberation, there were many differing opinions about how the issue should be addressed. Some students didn’t see the benefit in “scaring” students and had their own- even personal experiences with laws put in place to “protect” them not actually going as planned. For instance, one of the approaches the binge drinking team took was to discuss laws already in place, like the one where a student who is inebriated and calls for help will be considered a “good samaritan” and not get in trouble. However, there was a student in the group who said she tried to do that and actually was sent to court. We discovered that the law is fairly new, so that was good information to receive.

Another important part of the deliberation according to Gastil is the necessary component of respecting other participants. It’s easy in deliberation to want to begin to argue or debate your point of view, but it was important for us as moderators to relieve any tension within the group, as well as to be good audience members and have a discussion, not debate. Both groups did a great job of this. There were really no tense moments where a situation had to be diffused.

The more analytic side of the deliberation that Gastil notes we should take is weighing the pros and cons of all approaches. My plastic group certainly did this, for each approach we discussed and asked for feedback as to why our approaches may or may not work. For each, many people participated and gave their input. The binge group did this well also. However, they had more people wanting to discuss the cons of their approaches.

Another analytic side that Gastil mentions is identifying a broad amount of approaches. Both teams did an excellent job of choosing three broad approaches to discuss throughout the deliberation. The criteria demanded us to choose three solid approaches, and by doing so we had plenty of opportunities to pick at the minds of our audiences.

Lastly, Gastil comments that deliberation groups identify key priorities. For instance, groups should not go on about a topic that would not be relevant to the audience. Groups should be mindful of not just their own values, but also others. I feel as if we could have found better ways to cater to our audience. At times, it seemed like people were confused about what we were asking. However, I think team binge did an excellent job of knowing their audience. They had people very engaged and wanting to contribute, as well as having a huge turnout.