Voter registration drive, speaker, movie planned to mark Constitution Week

The Messenger 09.11.08

The U.S. Constitution will be at the center of several events slated at the University of Tennessee at Martin during Constitution Week this month.
Events will be sponsored by the UT Martin American Democracy Project and the Student Government Association. They are free and open to the public.
The observance will begin with the movie “Iron Jawed Angels,” to be shown at 6 p.m. Monday in Watkins Auditorium of Boling University Center.
Dr. Harry C. Boyte, founder and co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University of Minnesota Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, will speak on the subject “Redeeming the American Dream: State Universities and the Future of Democracy” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Watkins Auditorium.
Since 1987, Boyte has worked with a variety of partners in Minnesota, nationally and internationally on community development, citizenship education and civic renewal. Currently, Boyte is working with state legislators, community groups, immigrants, foundations and non-profit, religious, educational, neighborhood and citizen organizations to create Minnesota Works Together, a movement to strengthen civic life in Minnesota. He also serves on the steering advisory committee of the University of Minnesota’s Office of Public Engagement.
For several months each year, Boyte resides in South Africa, where he is working with colleagues to analyze models of citizen democracy across Africa. Working with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, he co-directed Lessons from the Field, an in-depth look at what has happened to South African democracy since the election of President Nelson Mandela in 1994. In the 1960s, Boyte worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a field secretary with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the southern civil rights movement.
Prior to Boyte’s speech, UT Martin student leaders will meet from 2:30-3:45 p.m. in Room 206A of the University Center to discuss which knowledge-acquisition and life-strategy values are right for the student culture at UT Martin (or for any university). The ideas generated from this discussion will be used in a UT Martin Values Summit slated for Oct. 30. The Values Summit will draw from discussions with student leaders, administrators, faculty and community members. The summit will also be a celebration of the civic engagement work being done at UT Martin and a time to plan more projects.
Capping activities, a voter registration drive (co-sponsored by the SGA) is planned for Tuesday through Sept. 18 in the University Center.
For more information, contact Dr. Mike McCullough, ADP director, at (731) 881-7325 or mccullou@utm.edu, or Dr. Heidi Huse, assistant professor of English, at (731) 881-7280 or hhuse@utm.edu.

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