Mills students observed Constitution Day through a written discussion of what the historical document means to them.
Constitution Day falls every Sept. 17, and Mills must observe the holiday as it is a requirement for any school receiving federal funding. A whiteboard which was recently installed in front of the Tea Shop was given its first use as an open forum for students on Constitution day. A table in front of the board contained cards with prompts like “If I could make a change to the Constitution…” to help spark discussion and comments.
Public Policy Program director Lori Bamberger coordinated the event with the intent of making it more interactive than last year’s, when a copy of the Constitution was given to each student.
“What I really liked about this observation is that we can observe it by saying what’s also wrong about the Constitution, not just what’s right about the Constitution” Bamberger said. “We can do the observance in our own special Millsian way.”
Some students were glad of a way to share frustration of the current political climate.
“I feel like especially recently there’s been a lot of things about women’s rights and women’s health, and I think it’s interesting how there’s a bunch of dudes talking about what women should do with their body,” first year Masha Soshnin said. “I can do what I want with my own body.”
Senior Saleha Ahmed pointed out that all parts of America are different, and said that having a unified understanding of what our country stands for in the Constitution is a way of helping to keep us all together.
“I think it’s really important to make sure that we have that standardized kind of thing that we all believe in, or at least agree on, in a time where so many of us are divided,” Ahmed said.
