skip navigation links JCCC Home
Future Students Current Students Faculty & Staff Continuing Education Friends & Visitors Tracks
Image of sky, and shadowed tree limbs and leaves with two heads in silhouette and the text Learning Comes First at JCCC.
JCCC Celebrates Constitution Day
Divider

9/08/05
Story by Peggy Graham

JCCC Celebrates Constitution Day

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Johnson County Community College will celebrate Constitution Day with a Ben Franklin press conference at 10 a.m. and a lecture, Our Constitution: A Document Produced in Turmoil, by William Eckhardt, clinical professor of law, director of Urban Affairs Outreach, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, at 11 a.m., both Monday, Sept. 19, in the Craig Community Auditorium, room 233 of the General Education Building. Events are free and open to the public.

• 10 a.m. Ben Franklin Meets the Press
JCCC history professor Fred Krebs, in the guise of Ben Franklin, will debate with reporters Katie Couric (vice president of Instruction Marilyn Rhinehart) Bill O’ Reilly (history professor Vin Clark) and Tom Brokaw (executive vice president Dana Grove) over the creation and meaning of the U.S. Constitution. Ambassador Franklin will also answer questions from the audience.

• 11 a.m. Our Constitution: A Document Produced in Turmoil
In addition to academic positions, Eckhardt’s military experience includes director of National Security Legal Issues and Legal Adviser, U.S. Army War College; general counsel of the U.S. European Command, Third Armored Division and Presidio of San Francisco; chief prosecutor, My Lai criminal cases; and prosecutor and defense counsel, Vietnam and Germany.

• noon Photo opportunities with Franklin and reporters

In addition to these event, the Daughters of the American Revolution will be dressed in period costumes and hand out copies of the Constitution to the audience. People can also test their knowledge of the Constitution online at http://web.jccc.edu/constitution.

Following a Constitutional amendment, the U.S. Department of Education, as of May 2005, requires all educational institutions receiving federal funding to observe the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, Sept. 17, 1787. Findings from a survey of 600 students released by the National Constitution Center include the following.

  • 25.5 percent of respondents know that Philadelphia is the city where the Constitution was written compared to 75.2 percent who know what city the zip code 90210 is attributed to.
  • 21.2 percent of respondents know how many senators serve in the U.S. Senate compared to 81.2 percent who know how many members there are in the music group “Hanson.”
  • 1.8 percent of respondents know that James Madison is considered the father of the Constitution compared to 58.3 percent who know that Bill Gates is the father of Microsoft. 

For more information about JCCC’s Constitution Day, call Marilyn Gaar, professor, political science/history, at 913-469-8500, ext. 3488.