Welcome! Penn State’s Constitution Day 2022 invites the university community and wider publics to reflect on and discuss the question “What is the role of The People in sustaining democracy?”
Before reading and engaging with posters by students in this semester’s Foundations of Civic and Community Engagement classes, you will most definitely want to watch, reflect on, and discuss the video by Associate Professor and Interim Head of the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences, Dr. Kirt H. Wilson (Video Transcript). Professor Wilson challenges us to consider not just what the Constitution means to us but also what it demands of us, each and all. Then enjoy the posters, make comments, and ask questions of the students who will be online at different times throughout the afternoon.
The goal of Constitution Day 2022 is to engage students, faculty, staff, and wider publics with conversations around the U.S. Constitution, its perils, and its promise. The online event is sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, which also sponsors the Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement (CIVCM).
You are invited to comment and engage with students about their posters through Kaltura. If you are not logged in to a Penn State access account, you can leave comments on this year’s Constitution Day event through our feedback form.
Constitution Day 2022 also highlights The CIVCM Constitution Day Archive, a collection of the past seven years of Constitution Day posters and discussion-prompts intended to help our community and wider publics learn about and engage with the U.S. Constitution. You can access The CIVCM Constitution Day Archive by clicking on the tabs at the left of this web page.
Penn State, like any institution of higher education accepting federal funds, is required by federal law to mark Constitution Day each year. That law, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005, states in section 111b that “Each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on or about September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.”
Thanks to students in Foundations of Civic and Community Engagement for this year’s posters; to Kirt Wilson, William Aungst, and Emily Bush-Clark of CAS; and to Andrew Wright and Benjamin Bryan of ITLA for their help with this year’s Constitution Day event and website.
And thank YOU for participating in Constitution Day 2022!
— Dr. Rosa A. Eberly, Associate Professor, Communication Arts & Sciences
Director, Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement
The 2022 Poster Sessions focus on:
ROLE
PEOPLE
SUSTAINING
DEMOCRACY
The Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement, in tandem with the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, hosts the annual Penn State “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day” celebration on September 21. This event highlights the ongoing societal relevance and dynamic quality of the United States Constitution, and offers an opportunity to reflect on the rights, responsibilities, and perils afforded by the United States’ constitutive document.
The core of Constitution Day each year is work by students in Foundations of Civic and Community Engagement (CAS 222N / CIVCM 211N), the only prescribed course for the Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement. These students have created posters on a specific element of the Constitution that interests them, with the goal of educating and engaging other students and the community, across and beyond the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
You are invited to comment and engage with students about their posters through Kaltura. If you are not logged in to a Penn State access account, you can leave comments on this year’s Constitution Day event through our feedback form.
Constitution Day is sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, which also houses and sponsors the Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement (CIVCM), and by the College of the Liberal Arts.
