Jack Miller Center Supporting Constitution Day Programs at 35 Colleges and Universities
Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) September 10, 2013 -- A total of 35 colleges and universities, including Yale, Emory, Notre Dame, Duke, Columbia, Villanova, and Brown, will receive support from the Jack Miller Center to conduct Constitution Day educational programs on a wide-range of topics to commemorate the federally mandated Constitution Day observance on September 17th.
The programs mark the third year the Jack Miller Center (JMC), a Philadelphia-based non-profit, has provided funds to institutions of higher learning for Constitution Day programs. With a nationwide network of more than 600 professors, many of whom specialize in the study and teaching of the American constitutional tradition, the Jack Miller Center embarked on this project to increase awareness of the Constitution Day mandate and assist campuses in developing substantive educational programs.
With a lead gift from the Andrea Waitt Carlton Family Foundation (Nashville, TN), JMC launched its Constitution Day initiative in 2011, and during the course of the past three years has supported more than 100 programs throughout the country, providing thousands of students with new opportunities to explore the centrality of constitutionalism to a better understanding of the American experience, past and present. In addition to an impressive roster of political scientists, historians and legal scholars from some of the nation’s most prestigious universities, past programs have included participation by Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens, Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia.
2013 Constitution Day Programs
This year, some of America’s leading historical, legal and political thinkers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood and Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig will examine the meaning of the Constitution in lectures and debates across the country.
“What is so exciting and valuable about the JMC Constitution Day Initiative is that it helps support programs of real substance for the campus community,” said Dr. Michael Andrews, executive officer and vice president for academic programs at the Jack Miller Center. “The program offers students a unique opportunity to discuss with some of our nation’s leading thinkers the fundamental questions animating a free society. The long-term goal of our initiative is to bring back to the curriculum the critical study of American constitutionalism.”
About the Jack Miller Center
The Jack Miller Center (JMC) is a nonpartisan 501 (C) (3) public foundation dedicated to reinvigorating education in America’s Founding Principles and history. The foundation works with college faculty, administrators, and donors to improve this essential education for students. The JMC’s community of professors currently totals more than 600 on more than 190 campuses across the United States and includes many of our nation’s leading scholars in American history and political theory. In addition, since its founding, JMC has invested in partner programs on 52 campuses, including Ivy League institutions, flagship state universities and leading liberal arts colleges. JMC is led by its founder and chairman, Jack Miller, a prominent Chicago philanthropist, and its president, Mike Ratliff (Rear Admiral, USN ret.), the former chief of Naval Intelligence. Mr. Miller and Admiral Ratliff began their efforts in higher education in 2004 and incorporated the JMC as an independent foundation in 2007 with headquarters in Philadelphia.
About Constitution Day
In 2004, Congress passed legislation requiring that every institution of higher education receiving federal funds hold an educational program on the Constitution on September 17, the day delegates to the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787 to sign the completed Constitution. While campus administrators are generally aware of the federal mandate to hold Constitution Day programs, they often lack the resources to mount successful events.
*A complete listing of the colleges and universities and the topics of their 2013 Constitution Day programs that are funded by the Jack Miller Center is attached.
Janis Burenga, [email protected], 609 397 4880, [email protected]
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