SGA Constitution Day Hits the Hilltop - Final Draft

Tommy Collins
Journalism II
Prof Heath
9/29/09

SGA Constitution Day - Final Draft

St. Edward’s University students, mainly brought by free popsicles, congregated at a Student Government Association event, celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution on Thursday by handing out free pocket constitutions.

SGA members set up a booth in the Robert and Pearle Ragsdale Center lobby from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and handed out miniature constitutions and free popsicles. All St. Edward’s students, faculty and staff members were welcomed to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

The goal of the event was to celebrate an important date in history, said Hannah Kurtzweil, vice president of legislative initiatives.

“We were handing out the pocket constitutions to help raise peoples awareness of what was in the constitution and so that people could have a copy of it themselves,” Kurtzweil said. “The pop ices were a way to help get people excited and do something nice other than to just say hey its constitution day…”

Congress passed a measure in 2004 requiring that every educational institution that receives any federal funding, private or public, host some type of constitution awareness event. For St. Edward’s University, SGA took on that responsibility.

SGA consists of student representatives who serve as mediators between the student body and the administration through work on various councils, boards and committees.

“I honestly didn’t realize today was the anniversary of when [the constitution] was signed,” senior Bernie Lancaster said. “I grew up in Australia, so it is cool to see how days like this are celebrated away from home.”

The free pop ice alone drew other students to the event.

“I’ll listen to what they have to say if they give me free popsicles,” junior Brett Powers said. “It’s cool that they are giving out mini constitutions and all, but I wouldn’t have stopped by if there weren’t free [popsicles].”

There was also a table set up providing information about future SGA events.

SGA will host an induction ceremony next week on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Mabee A & B. It will also host the State of the Campus address in which the Student Government President Meghan Kuentz will address the campus about where it is going this year and where the Student Government Association is planning to help.

Overall the SGA event went very well, Kurtzweil said.

“The constitutions were donated to Student Government to hand out on Constitution day so I think distributing a whole box of them was a great success,” Kurtzweil said.