The Virginia Informer

Last Updated:7/12/09 Section: News

The Sharpe Scholars program at William and Mary has focused on relations between student and the City of Williamsburg in the past. This year one group of Sharpe Scholars, the Citizenship and Community Sharpe Group, conducted a study in which students, non-student residents of Williamsburg, and landowners discussed the much-contested three person rule. The study found that interactions prompted by the project resulted in increased social capital between participants, but that group interaction did not necessarily improve perceptions of city-student relations. The report issued by the group is below.


Report by the 2008-2009 Citizenship and Community Sharpe Group:

Every year, up to seventy-five incoming William and Mary freshmen are chosen to become Sharpe Scholars. The Sharpe Community Scholars Program integrates community service and scholarship through service learning, in two different ways. In the fall, each Sharpe Scholar takes a freshman seminar, which covers a certain community issue, and in the spring they undertake a service-learning project relating to their seminar. This year, the Sharpe Scholars were split into four seminar groups: Living with the Environment, Community Health Issues, Maggie Walker: Preserving and Interpreting African American History, and Perspectives on Citizenship and Community. This semester, the Citizenship and Community class decided to organize a Deliberation Day as the centerpiece of their service-learning project.

During the fall semester, the Citizenship and Community class combined research and learning in order to lay a foundation for their work in the spring. Under the instruction of Professor Joel Schwartz, the class learned that American representative democracy provides its citizens with essential rights and freedoms in exchange for participation. Neglect of this responsibility to participate inhibits the government's ability to accurately represent its citizens. Participation in political life has decreased more with each recent generation, and United States citizens have taken their civic duties less and less seriously. Students studied the writings of David Matthews, Robert Putnam, and Morris P. Fiorina among others, to conclude that participation is a crucial aspect of a successful democracy, and that strengthening social capital - that is, strengthening bonds between citizens - will strengthen the United States' rates of civic participation.

Deliberation was a particular focus in the study and promotion active democracy. Deliberation is the process by which a group reaches a compromise on an issue through discussion and participation of all members. This process is difficult for large communities, which combine an immense population with dwindling civic participation. However, the class believed that deliberation could effectively be implemented in smaller communities, such as Williamsburg. The students chose the Three Person Rule as a topic for discussion. In theory, citizens may and should engage in deliberation during all stages of life; however, Deliberation Day was a necessary means of prompting active democracy through discussion.

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