OSU hosting Constitution Day celebration next week
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Media Contact: Bonnie Cain-Wood | Manager, Communication Services of University Libraries | 405-744-7331 | bonnie.cain@okstate.edu
In celebration of Constitution Day on Friday, Sept. 17, the Oklahoma State University Library and the Department of Political Science are hosting a weeklong celebration starting Monday, Sept. 13.
Constitution Day, also known as Citizenship Day, is an American federal observance that recognizes the ratification of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. It is observed on Sept. 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.
The law establishing the holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Sen. Robert Byrd to the Omnibus spending bill of 2004. Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known as "Citizenship Day."
In addition to renaming the holiday "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day," the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day. In May 2005, the United States Department of Education announced the enactment of this law and that it would apply to any school receiving federal funds of any kind.
This year the campus and community are invited to join in a public program titled “Contemplating the Constitution.” In the program, participants can distill their thoughts, observations, experiences on the Constitution in six words. The submission form is available at library.okstate.edu/constitution/. OSU students who participate will have the chance to enter a drawing for one of five $200 scholarships.
Throughout the week, students will be tabling in the south lobby of the Library to distribute more information and free pocket Constitutions.
Student club co-sponsors are the Political Science Club and Pi Sigma Alpha.
Concurrently going on at the library — not a part of Constitution Day activities — are the Presidents of OSU exhibit and the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Collection.