Brisson 19 Organizational experience also proved to have a significant correlation with the willingness to participate in the forum. Here, organizational experience is operationalized by the sheer quantity of unique extracurricular activities. This was then tested for correlation with whether a student is likely to participate; this is in contrast with the quantity of time spent on extracurricular activities overall. It turns out that the number of organizations in which a student participated explained more variance than the amount of time they spend in those organizations. A likely explanation for this is that students with more experience in different groups are more inclined to take part in discussions in a new group as they have experience speaking to a more diverse group. It seems that homogenous networks are correlated with lower participation rates. This is not only a positive thing for deliberations (as these individuals are able to serve as connectors to help students with perhaps little else in common but a common friend relate with each other), but it is also reasonable, as those who embrace difference in their networks are also often the same types of people who would embrace the opportunity to discuss issues in a public forum. We also found that gender was negatively correlated with willingness to participate, in contradiction with our hypothesis, although this correlation was not particularly strong and may just be coincidence. A larger sample could help discern whether this is meaningful, and it would also be helpful to be able to compare it to a likeliness to participate in a debate regarding national political affairs. It is possible that there is still a gender gap locally, but it simply is significantly smaller. Other than whether or not respondents were willing to attend a public forum, we also explored three other variables to get a sense of political engagement at this super-local level. First, involvement in the community is examined to determine how various factors
Gender and the Super-Local
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