UK to Celebrate Constitution Week

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 12, 2014) — Lovers of free apple pie and the U.S. Constitution unite: the University of Kentucky, led by the UK Honors Program and the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, will celebrate Constitution Week starting Monday.

Constitution Day, the national commemoration of the signing of the United States Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, has become an annual celebration at the University of Kentucky where everyone, including students, faculty, staff, elected officials and all citizens, observe the rights and privileges granted to Americans by the U.S. Constitution.

Monday, Sept. 15

"A Conversation with U.S. Rep. Andy Barr on the U.S. Constitution" will open the annual celebration from 10 to 10:50 a.m. Monday, Sept. 15  in Room 122 of the Whitehall Classroom Building. Associate Professor Buck Ryan's JOU 101 class will engage the congressman on issues ranging from the role of Congress and the presidency at wartime, to the role of the press in democracy. The class is open to the public.

"We originally invited Andy and his challenger, Elisabeth Jensen, to our Tuesday event," Ryan said. "But Andy needed to be in Washington on that day, so we arranged our Monday lecture instead. We're excited to hear Elisabeth's views on the Constitution the next day." 

Tuesday, Sept. 16

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, good citizens will be greeted with free apple pie, free U.S. Constitutions and free speech on the north lawn of the Main Building (across from the Buell Armory and Barker Hall). Ryan's Honors class, "Citizen Kentucky: Journalism and Democracy," is organizing the event, including a visit by Henry Clay, thanks to the Kentucky Humanities Council's Kentucky Chautauqua speaker series. 

Mayor Jim Gray and UK Assistant Vice President for Public Safety Anthany Beatty, the two candidates for mayor in the upcoming  Nov. 4 election, have also been invited to the Tuesday event to reflect on the importance of the U.S. Constitution. Beatty is Lexington's former police chief.

"We invite candidates to Constitution Day events so students can see them up close," said Ryan, director of the Citizen Kentucky Project, which is designed to engage young people in civic life. "But these are not campaign stops; they are civic education events."

A civic information fair will also be held Tuesday so students can learn how to register to vote and obtain an Election 2014 Voter's Guide. Belinda Ajia, Kentucky coordinator for the Campus Vote Project, based in Washington, D.C., will speak as well as a student representative of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, which will provide a voter registration table.

In addition to the mayoral candidates and Jensen, other special guests will include middle school singers from Christ the King School in Lexington and German Fulbright students in a four-week "Discover USA" program at UK.

Wednesday, Sept. 17

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, the official Constitution Day, also on the north lawn of the Main Building, the celebration will coincide with a salute to the 100th anniversary of journalism education at UK, as high school journalism students will compete to cover the event. 

Among the highlights on Wednesday will be the Citizen Kentucky Project's awarding of the first Enoch Grehan Prize to Jamie Miller and Liz Palmer, the husband and wife team that has propelled duPont Manual High School in Louisville to award-winning journalism over many years.

"The legend is that Enoch Grehan, our founding journalism director, died on a weekend grading high school journalism papers," said Ryan, the eighth director in the 100-year history of UK's journalism school (1994-2002). "Enoch will be smiling down on us all next week, I'm sure."

Among the co-sponsors and collaborators for UK's 11th annual Constitution Day celebration are the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, the Honors Program, the Provost’s Office, the Student Government Association, the Student Center Director's Office; and the colleges of Communication and Information, Education, Engineering, Law and Social Work; UK Libraries, particularly the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center; the Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence, and Campus Compact, based in Northern Kentucky University.

In case of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, events will move to the Cats Den in the Student Center. For more details about the 2014 Constitution Week at UK, stay tuned to UKnow.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jenny Wells, 859-257-5343; jenny.wells@uky.edu