Democracy Plaza doomed?

A new group on campus is attempting to convince students to participate in public discussion of political issues. Democracy Plaza plans to have panel discussion sessions where students can voice their opinions and listen to experts speak. The group also plans to put dry erase boards up in various locations across campus that will ask specific questions about current issues. Students will respond via marker.\nOn the surface, this looks like a great idea. Promoting public discussion among college students is a noble cause, to be sure. But will it work? Democracy Plaza has a lot of issues to deal with before it can become successful.\nGetting student participation is inherently difficult. The first Democracy Plaza panel discussion drew few students. There are so many groups and activities at IU that Democracy Plaza must find an innovative advertising scheme to get a large number of students to show up. What does the group offer that makes its panel discussion any better than if students just stayed in their dorm and talked about politics with their friends? There are certainly many students with the willingness to share their political views and debate, but to get them to regularly attend, Democracy Plaza must prove it has something special to offer. \nThe panel members are a possible edge. Their experience could add an element to the discussion that fellow students might not. In its first event, however, we believe Democracy Plaza took a step in the wrong direction. There was a lack of controversy between the two lecturers, professor of law Kevin D. Brown and political science department chairman Jeff Isaac. If the group wishes to portray itself as one solely promoting discussion, it should offer more perspectives. We acknowledge the possibility that these two panel members might have been the only professors available for the first event. However, perhaps postponing the event might have been a better option if the group prefers to be seen as non-partisan. If Democracy Plaza wants to be successful and stay true to its stated goals, its next discussion should offer a wider range of panelists.\nDespite the success the dry erase boards apparently had at IUPUI, we doubt the same will occur at IU. A quick walk through of any residence hall will show that dry erase boards are not a place for enlightened discussion. A mechanism in college students' brains inhibits them from writing anything intelligent with a dry erase marker. Therefore, we envision the boards as a mix between a few hastily written, barely legible rants on a chosen subject, followed by a number of entries like "Your mom is a strict constitutionalist!" The possibility for the boards to devolve into name calling forums is a very real one. When tempers flare over what someone wrote about a person's mother, it's not always pretty. We don't want to see students leaving residence hall lobbies with markers up their noses.\nGood luck, Democracy Plaza: You've got a long road ahead of you.