The University of Louisiana at Lafayette will recognize the founding of the American republic with a naturalization ceremony, a panel discussion and a public reading of the U.S. Constitution.
The activities are planned for Monday, a day before Constitution Day. The yearly federal observance commemorates the adoption of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.
The naturalization ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at Edith Garland Dupré Library. A reading of the U.S. Constitution will follow. About 250 free copies of the document will be distributed. The League of Women Voters of Lafayette will also sponsor a voter registration table in the library.
The panel discussion will be held at 3 p.m. in Griffin Hall, Room 347. It is being hosted by the College of Liberal Arts. Dr. Rick Swanson, head of the political science department, will moderate.
Panelists are: Dr. Theodore Foster, an assistant professor of history; Dr. Rich Frankel, an associate professor of history; Deron Santiny, a U.S. Army and U.S. Navy veteran; and Cheylon Woods, director of the Ernest J. Gaines Center. The topic will be “Who is an American?”
Dr. Pearson Cross, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and an associate professor of Political Science, said the panel will delve into an idea central to the “core of our Constitution, which is ‘We the People.’”
“The panel will consider the question of who is and who isn’t an American and what our nation is about in this joint enterprise of democracy, especially in light of current issues about voting and about inclusion,” Cross said.
All events associated with UL Lafayette’s commemoration of Constitution Day are free and open to the public.
Learn more about UL Lafayette’s commemoration of U.S. Constitution Day.