Spring CACTUS class to debate changing the drinking age

During the 2008 spring semester, a group of students tackled the pros and cons of changing the structure of the electoral college, and they did it for college credit. In the spring semester, a new group of students will undertake a new debate: the possibility of changing the legal drinking age. CACTUS, or the Citizens Assembly for Critical Thinking about the United States, is a 300-level course offered in the spring by Eastern's political science department. It is part of Eastern's Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which is designed to help student learning and enhance critical thinking.

CACTUS introduces students to a classroom atmosphere unlike most others. The course, POL 301, is based on the idea of a deliberative democracy in which students work together like a small government assembly, hoping to achieve a consensus about a central topic.

During the spring 2009 semester, the class will be discussing who should be in charge of changing the drinking age and debating whether it should be lowered.

CACTUS project director Jane Rainey said the theme seemed appropriate for CACTUS because the issue of lowering the drinking age has recently been brought into the national spotlight by a group called the Amethyst Initiative.

The process of the CACTUS class is divided into three main segments: learning, public hearing and deliberation.

Students will begin the semester by studying the subject, researching its background, and understanding how it works and how it plays a role in the larger picture of government. Guest speakers also are brought in to help provide different perspectives and views on certain subjects, which may influence the assembly's final decision.

Then the assembly holds public hearings. All of the campus community is invited to attend the public hearings. Citizens are encouraged to attend and express their views and opinions on the subject to help the assembly reach a more informed decision in its final report.

Finally the assembly, composed of about 50 students, deliberates among themselves to reach a decision about the topic. Once they come to a consensus, the assembly develops its final report, detailing the decision they reached and why they feel it is the best route.

"(CACTUS) offers some opportunities that other classes don't, with an emphasis on deliberation," CACTUS co-coordinator Joe Gershetenson said.

Rainey said the emphasis on deliberative democracy allows people to work together based on a sense of community, which is a very important component of decision-making.

Nick Goodman, a senior political science major, enrolled in the course last semester. "It's one of the best classes I've taken," Goodman said. He said that he took away a lot of valuable tools from the class.

He also said that the 2008 theme seemed very fitting with upcoming election.

"The 2000 elections seemed unfair and unjust to many people," he said. "How we choose our president is a big issue."

Goodman said the class decided that the United States needed a change in the way the elections were run, so they decided upon a series of new ways in which people could vote.

"With this common goal, an atmosphere was created where everyone was willing to work together," he said. "I learned that you can disagree with someone and still come to a compromise.