Constitution Day panel brings insights from various Rhode Island College Students

Tim Yean

Sports Editor

A Constitution Day panel was held Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 17, in the south faculty dining room at Donovan Dining Center for a discussion on various topics surrounding the Constitution and key topics that impact Americans today. Dr. Natalie Rogol of the political science department at Rhode Island College moderated the panel attended by both students and faculty.

Photo by Tim Yean

“Oh, the students are amazing. I was prepared to be impressed, and I was even more impressed than I thought I was going to be. So a lot of interesting insight, a lot of different expertise and experiences. And I think I even learned some things,” Dr. Rogol said following the panel.

Five students took part in the conversation, each taking on a “student role” on campus and providing their perspectives. There were four separate topics discussed in the hour-long conversation.

For the opening topic, Sam Sheehan, a student enrolled in a free speech class, gave their thoughts on free speech on campus as well as on the Trump administration’s stance on campus protests.

“I knew that protests have happened on college campuses, but I don't think I really realized how Vietnam, protests were [important] and then even going further back… college students have always been so important to protest because of the demographic that they are,” Sheehan responded. “I find that it should be handled delicately because college students are very much, they have to be kind of the source of a lot of protests.”

The second topic featured dialogue on fairness in the justice system and the advocacy for fair treatment. Prescilla Da Fonseca, a criminal justice student, was asked to explain her interest in criminal justice.

“So why is America the way it is? Why is the justice system the way it is? And I think also just growing up and having to hear how I have to move about the world because of the color of my skin just made me more interested in wanting to know what would be the reason behind that.”

Gianna Rose, who served a leading role on Student Community Government was able to talk about her experience in student government and some issues that arise with getting organizations approved by campus administration.

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“And even to get access to administration, you know, being a liaison, because in student government we're fortunate enough to be able to get [into] administration and be able to voice our opinions, but a lot of students, they can't do that.”

Student panelists were asked about what rights they don’t know they have. A student with ten years in the workplace spoke on workplace rights and how the youth are expected to put up a bigger workload and put up with the tasks of older workers and their bosses. “I see that in my own campus job, students’ rights are being trampled over… you should be treated fairly, and you should have the resources to go to other places like community somewhere and demand fair treatment in this sense.”

Sotheavy Yuong, the student veteran of the panel, explained the complexity of privacy when out in public. “People aren't aware of that, a lot of people, they realize they think that, ‘oh, you can't film me. Oh, you, you can't do this,’ but it’s their right.” He also referenced the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution in connection to engagements to police and one’s rights when it comes to giving consent to searches, and emphasized being able to understand your constitutional rights. “You're the one who's responsible for it, not everybody else is responsible.”

The concluding topic of the day, and the one that seemed to spark the most ideas and conversation amongst the panel and the audience was how to get people, especially students, involved with civic engagement on and off campus. Ideas brought up by the panel included taking political science classes, joining student-ran organizations and being more open to discuss and debate fellow peers with differing viewpoints.

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The student journalist, who requested anonymity, highlighted social media algorithms as keeping people secluded to “recommended” viewpoints, and urged students to take more time watching the news. An audience member noted that something as simple as listening to National Public Radio instead of music for morning commutes to RIC can make an impactful difference on peoples’ understanding of current events.

One more thing the student journalist told the audience was to take what you watch from the news and use that to inspire yourself to help bring action in the community, in hopes that it will bring even more discussion and civic engagement from the community itself.

“Be the person that inspires action.”