BGSU marks anniversary of Constitution Monday

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Bowling Green State University will mark the 200th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Monday (Sept. 17) with programs in the residence halls and a panel discussion on “President Bush and the Constitution.”

Is Bush a friend of the Constitution, or have his policies undermined the constitutional balance of power? Drs. Gary Hess, Distinguished Research Professor of history, and political science faculty members Drs. Jeff Peake and Dion Farganis will consider fundamental questions of American democracy in light of the War on Terror, the Iraq war and other Bush policies that have profound implications for the Constitution.

The panel discussion will be held at 7:30 p.m. in 201 Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Free and open to the public, the event is sponsored by the departments of political science and history along with the Office of the Dean of Students.

Constitution Day programs set for the residence halls include a Constitution "Jeopardy" program in McDonald testing students' knowledge; a collaborative art project in Offenhauer, and the distribution of red, white and blue ribbons with attached facts about the Constitution in Kreischer Ashley/Batchelder.

Harshman/Anderson/Bromfield halls are conducting a program focused on the minority population at the time the Constitution was written. Doors in the hall will be labeled with either an X or a star. Randomly, two out of every five doors will receive a large X, representing the 40 percent of the U.S. population that was enslaved at the time the Constitution was written and did not have the privileges it granted. On Monday evening, residents will take part in a discussion about the program.

Students in Kreischer Compton/Darrow and Harshman Chapman/Dunbar halls will be writing letters to soldiers stationed overseas.

In Kohl Hall, two resident advisors and a faculty member are facilitating a program called "FREEdom—I Scream for Ice Cream for our Constitution,” in which residents will be served ice cream with facts about the Constitution and have a discussion in which students can talk openly about things they wish were different about or added to the Constitution.

The S.M.A.R.T. (Students of Color Mentoring, Aiding, Retaining and Teaching) Program will be utilizing information from the Constitution Day Web site at its weekly staff meeting with games, quizzes and themed attire.

Other halls will feature Constitution-related bulletin boards and mailbox stuffers.

# # #

(Posted September 14, 2007)