Agent of Democracy - Society for College and University Planning

Agent of Democracy
The “pro-school” group saw that the “anti-school” group was
not against improving education so much as they just wanted to
make sure the school board and officials were being financially responsible
to the town’s middle- and lower-income residents with
their idealistic plans. They also
“The kind of politics
that makes citizen deliberation
central to democracy
trusts the public’s
experience and intelligence
as a vital resource,
and seeks to nurture that
intelligence and give it
opportunity for development
and expression.”
(“The College as Citizen: One
College Evolves through the
Work of Public Deliberation,”
HEX, 2000.)
did not want the existing school
to move out of their community
—it was a hub of local life and an
important component of efforts to
maintain a vibrant community
and revitalize their town center.
They were also concerned about
all the intangible social costs to
students and to the town of Jaffrey
of moving the school out of the
village center to the “suburbs” and
changing it from a communitybased
school to what seemed to
them a more anonymous, campusstyle
one.
The pro-school citizens had
wanted the new school to be
located at a new site on the land
between the two towns and had not understood how much of the
opposition to the idea of building a new school was related to concerns
about its proposed location. On the other hand, those who
were voting year after year against the proposal for a new school
began to see how serious the needs were for more space and better
facilities. And they realized how important it was to be part of a
solution, instead of standing in the way of change. They realized
that what appeared like stubborn belligerence on the part of the
school board and their supporters in their continual effort to put a
new high school building project before the voters, was, from the
perspective of the new school proponents, an act of loyalty to the
majority in the town who had been turning out and voting for it
year after year (the measure needed 60 percent support to pass).
192