Tag Archives: new york

Here’s What You Missed: Constitution Day 2018

Nearly one hundred students and faculty attended Sarah Rogerson’s lecture in the SSU on Monday Sept. 24, titled “Immigration, Executive Power and the Constitution.” The lecture was in celebration of Constitution Day, which takes place annually on Sept. 17 in honor of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. The event was not only intended for students interested in political science, but those of all majors, political affiliations, and backgrounds.

After a performance of the Star Spangled Banner by the Siena Chamber Singers, Dr. Cutler, political science professor at Siena, introduced Rogerson. Rogerson is a clinical professor of law at Albany Law School, and the director of the Immigration Law Clinic and the Law Clinic & Justice Center.

“If you live and work in the United States, you are going to encounter immigration issues,” Rogerson explained. “The word ‘immigration’ is not found in the Constitution, so what gives?” She used a powerpoint to explore the Constitutional basis regarding immigration, showing students passages from the document and describing their origin.

Rogerson spoke on a number of immigration issues in our headlines today, including the broken legal system, Muslim Ban, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). She also discussed the ways in which immigration is depicted by the media. “Labels and terminology are important,” she said. “In order to be an immigrant, you have to have an intent to stay.” Rogerson emphasized the importance of knowing the difference between immigrant as a legal term and immigration/immigrating as a verb, something that is very hard to communicate through the news and news cycles.

Rogerson’s keynote lecture was valuable to all students and a great reflection of Constitution Day 2018. Check out and like our Facebook page to stay updated on upcoming SoLA events!

Constitution Day

Hey guys!

This past Tuesday we had a really awesome event on campus! This event was Constitution Day, an event that is hosted annually. The theme of this Constitution Day was New York State’s 2017 Referendum regarding the Constitutional Convention. If you aren’t aware of what this means, let me explain it a bit:

According to Section 2 of Article XIX of the state constitution, every twenty years there has to be a ballot question asking if there should be a convention to revise the constitution. If the voters vote for it, a convention is held, if they do not vote for it, nothing is held.

The speakers who debated this issue of whether or not to hold a convention were Gerald Benjamin and Jerry Kremer. Gerald is for holding a convention whereas Jerry is opposed to it.

Gerald believes that the constitution was born out of the concept of popular sovereignty. This means that government is created and subject to the people that it serves. Under these pretenses, Gerald believes that not only do the people of the state of New York have the right to a constitutional convention but that they should because that is why the constitution was created.

He understands that it is difficult that the proposal is on the back of the ballot and that people don’t like to vote on propositions, but he believes it is important that there is some democratic accountability.

On the flip side, Jerry Kremer believes that having a convention is too costly and unnecessary. He explains that anywhere from 75-100 million dollars would be spent on a referendum. He also believes that if the voters voted on having a convention,  he fears that a lot of important things that are in the constitution would possibly get taken out.

Another thing that frustrated Jerry was the fact that people who are pro-referendum have had twenty years to fight for voting yes on having one but have only recently been advocating the idea. Now that there is 45 days until the vote he feels as if people want a referendum just to have one, not because they actually have changes in mind.

All in all, the debate was very interesting and it opened my eyes to something I didn’t even know about. I think it’s important to attend events on campus that don’t necessarily interest you right off the bat because you may find out that after going to the event that it is actually interesting after all!

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