BYU-I celebrates Constitution’s 218th birthday

Susan Coss COS03002@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Government class, American Heritage and other history classes are required for students to take to graduate, but how well does the information stick with the students?

Constitution Day, September 17, 1787 was the birth of the United States Constitution and BYU-Idaho took Friday to celebrate the day for the first time.

There was a dance and Knowledge Bowl to find out how much students really knew about the Constitution.

The Knowledge Bowl, held in front of the Hyrum Manwaring Center where students competed against each other for a prize to see who had more knowledge regarding the Constitution.

A question asked by the activities committee to students was, “Who is the ‘father’ of the Constitution?” Some thought it was Thomas Jefferson, but the answer is James Madison.

On Thursday, some of the activities committee went around filming students in front of the David O. McKay Library as they answered Constitutional questions submitted by the Activities Board.

Josh Wallace, Director of Academic Activities and a senior from Blackfoot, Idaho asked some students questions while attracting much attention with his white wig fashioned after the wigs worn by our forefathers.

“We called it I-walking modeled after Jay Leno’s J-walking,” Wallace said.

Some foreign students participated in I-walking and felt it was a good thing [knowledge about the Constitution] to be spread around for students to be more aware of.

“I found out a lot of information that was new to me, I just got here and it was interesting information asked in fun ways,” said Maydell Viveros, a freshman from Puebla, Mexico.

The film was aired at the Constitution Dance Friday night. The dance had students show their patriotism by flaunting the colors red, white and blue.

“This day needs more recognition. The constitution was an inspired document and we need to live it as LDS people,” said Angel Viveros, Student Director for Cultural Heritage Council and a sophomore from Puebla, Mexico.

The ideas on which America was founded -- commitments to the rule of law, limited government and the ideals of liberty, equality and justice -- are embodied in the Constitution, the oldest written constitution on Earth. 

Constitution Day is intended to celebrate not only the birthday of our government, but the ideas that make us Americans, according to www.activities.byui.edu/events/constitutionday/default.htm.

“My favorite part was coming up with an idea to make students aware of Constitution Day in a fun way, but in a way they’d remember it,” said Viveros.

From here on out, Constitution Day will be celebrated by BYU-Idaho.