Constitution Day activities to focus on privacy, voting rights

Tech's annual Constitution Day festivities kick off next week and will feature several different events for students. The organization of some of the activities for this year has been changed slightly from last year.

The main organizers of this year's event are Robert Pikowsky, pre-law advisor and adjunct professor in the School of Public Policy and Cathy Carpenter, the head of the Architecture Library and subject specialist for the School of Public Policy.

There are two talks planned for the event next week, both focusing on current political and legal issues that are directly linked to the issue of constitutionality. Tuesday at 11 a.m. Pikowsky will talk about the early constitutional history of wiretapping. On Thursday at 11 a.m. Larry Keller, an attorney from Sapronov and Associates will talk about current laws regarding privacy issues.

Throughout the week the organizers also plan to have documentary films on the subject of key constitutional concepts playing in the Library East Commons (LEC).

The LEC will also host a special exhibit created by Kirk Henderson, library records manager, which will showcase several interesting facts about the subject of privacy and more.

"The content will focus on several different amendments from the Constitution. Included will be the 5th Amendment, 18th Amendment, privacy rights and voting rights, though voting rights and privacy rights are covered across several amendments," Carpenter said.

This year's festivities also include a week long voter registration drive organized by Carpenter. Voter registration will take place in the Library Rotunda Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Constitution Day has been held by Tech for the last two years. The reason behind this is a federal mandate from 2005.

The law states, "Each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an education program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution."

The law is rather vague and does not give direction to schools as to how they should conduct this educational program, giving schools a lot of flexibility in how far they go and how much time and resources they dedicate to their Constitution Day events. By going well above and beyond the minimum required by law, Carpenter said Tech stands out among other schools.

"We consider it to be a valuable teaching opportunity considering many students are lacking knowledge of civic issues," Carpenter said.

The organizers are also quick to mention that the lack of government stipulations is actually beneficial, not an impediment.

"The nice thing about it is that the government is not telling us what we have to do. If we wanted to we could just put a webpage up. All these activities are things that we consider to be of interest to students educationally." Carpenter said.

In the past Constitution Day has been accompanied by events such as Constitution Alley. The alley is setup along Skiles Walkway and allows students the ability to post comments about various issues that are currently facing the American public. Additionally talks have been given around the Campanile.

The events all take place next week. Voter registration is taking place Monday through Thursday from 11a.m. - 1p.m. in the Library Rotunda. The documentary film series will be shown on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11a.m. and Monday through Friday at 4p.m in the LEC.

The two speaking engagements with Pikowsky and Keller will take place Tuesday, September 18th at 11 a.m. and Thursday, September 20th at 11 a.m. respectively.