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News Release

Last modified: Monday, September 12, 2005

Constitution Day being observed at IU Bloomington in two events

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPT. 12, 2005

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Bloomington will mark the first Constitution Day with two events that will highlight the free and fair exchange of ideas promoted by that document and the role it plays in the lives of people worldwide.

A town hall meeting, "The United States Constitution as a Model for Others," will feature five scholars from IU, the Georgetown University Law Center and Foreign Policy in Focus. It will begin Friday (Sept. 16) at 12:30 p.m. in Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St. It is free and open to the public.

On Saturday (Sept. 17), the IU School of Education, in partnership with area high schools, will hold a Constitutional Forum in the W.W. Wright Building, 201 N. Rose Ave., from 9 a.m. to noon. Congressman Mike Sodrel will speak as part of that event. The forum is not open to the public.

These events are consistent with and in the spirit of a new federal law requiring that all public education institutions, including universities, commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution, which was done Sept. 17, 1787. Because the anniversary this year falls on a Saturday, the IUB campus' overall observance will be on Friday.

Participating in Friday's town hall meeting will be Nicholas B. Cullather, IU associate professor of history; Arlene J. Diaz, IU associate professor of history; Antonia Juhasz, a project director at the International Forum on Globalization and a Foreign Policy In Focus scholar; Mark Tushnet, the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law at the Georgetown University Law Center; and David Williams, the John S. Hastings Professor of Law at the IU School of Law-Bloomington.

The event is co-sponsored by the American Studies Program, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Dean of Faculties, the departments of history and political science and the IU School of Law.

The School of Education's Constitutional Forum will consist of activities designed to promote deliberation on the part of high school and IU undergraduate education students over a Supreme Court case, the Court's recent decision regarding the practice of downloading material from the Internet, commonly known as the "Napster Case."

The curriculum and protocol for the forum will be designed by IU pre-service secondary teacher education students enrolled in Paulette Dilworth's social studies methods class. Students from area high schools will be provided with information regarding the court case and will work together in groups during the forum to prepare a position on the case with evidence to support it. They also will be asked to assess the constitutionality of their position on the issue.

Majority and minority opinions on the case will be presented by participants. Russell Hanson, IU professor of political science, will provide commentary on the ideas expressed by the students.

The forum will be held in the IU School of Education Auditorium and several classrooms in the building to be used for group work sessions. Lunch will be provided for participants.

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