By Shaun Chornobroff
Micah Rasmussen, the director of Rider’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, has been involved in the New Jersey political landscape since he graduated from Rider in 1992. The political science professor organizes his classes to be a hub for political conversation with the party lines that often split local politics represented in his classroom.
Yet in recent years, students in his classroom bipartisanly agreed to the recreational legalization of marijuana, something that went into effect in New Jersey for those 21 and older on April 21.
“I would say it’s pretty rare to see a student who is opposed to legalization at this point and that’s probably been the case for a long time,” Rasmussen said poignantly. “Students always saw the benefit of legalization and always saw the futility of having [marijuana] criminalized and wanted to have that change.”
Rasmussen helped grow an annual event called Model Congress more than 30 years ago where high school students come to Rider, pitch different bills and simulate the process of making it a law.
“When I started running Model Congress, [legalization] was very much a fringe idea, it was very much a student idea, it was very much a pipe dream,” Rasmussen said before clarifying there was no intention of a pun in the quote. “… Year after year, decade after decade, advocates kept chipping away and they won over public opinion.”
Despite being…
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By Shaun Chornobroff
Micah Rasmussen, the director of Rider’s Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, has been involved in the New Jersey political landscape since he graduated from Rider in 1992. The political science professor organizes his classes to be a hub for political conversation with the party lines that often split local politics represented in his classroom.
Yet in recent years, students in his classroom bipartisanly agreed to the recreational legalization of marijuana, something that went into effect in New Jersey for those 21 and older on April 21.
“I would say it’s pretty rare to see a student who is opposed to legalization at this point and that’s probably been the case for a long time,” Rasmussen said poignantly. “Students always saw the benefit of legalization and always saw the futility of having [marijuana] criminalized and wanted to have that change.”
Rasmussen helped grow an annual event called Model Congress more than 30 years ago where high school students come to Rider, pitch different bills and simulate the process of making it a law.
“When I started running Model Congress, [legalization] was very much a fringe idea, it was very much a student idea, it was very much a pipe dream,” Rasmussen said before clarifying there was no intention of a pun in the quote. “… Year after year, decade after decade, advocates kept chipping away and they won over public opinion.”
Despite being…