By Adam Meyer

Constitution day is not just an ordinary day but instead it is a holiday. On this day students on Quincy University’s campus come to the Hall of Fame room. Assistant Professor Neil Wright and Assistant Professor Judy Abbott  help ignite passion into students by starting discussion in the room. Wright began Constitution day with a statement that created conversation between the students.

The students this year discussed mandatory voting, the topic revolved around if the government should regulate voting by making it mandatory or not and why. Students then discussed with each other pro’s and con’s about mandatory voting. Some pro’s stated from one table included the forcing of younger generations to vote. As of recently more ads have also been made and produced to help encourage younger generations to vote. 

At certain points of the discussion specific stances were made allowing for discussion. The only problem with this discussion starts with the students, about five students were stating their points and discussion their points of argument publicly. Others refused to state their opinion because they came to the event for extra credit points for their class.

“The proposal was to mandate voting. And what that requires students to grapple with is this tension between our civic duties, things that we do as citizens preform to keep our system going. And our individual liberties a lot of people like the idea that they don’t have to vote. So we had a bunch of good arguments along those lines,“ Wright said.

Wright also stated that there were fewer students this year in year’s past to Constitution Day. The reason, Wright believed, is because of the topic of discussion at this years Constitution Day was about voting rather than gun control and marijuana. For first year students their experience was different.

“I think it’s a cool experience and it’s really interesting to see everyone’s opinions and views on mandatory voting,“ Cooper Coleman, freshman, said.

Students at this year’s Constitution Day were more reserved, and as time progressed more students left to either go to class, practice or left because they did not want to be a part of the discussion. Inside the cafeteria at Quincy University the same day there was a booth helping students to register to vote.

“Is voting a duty, do we have a right not to vote can we have a republic if the people don’t participate in it? So those are some of the big questions that I was happy that students had to struggle with to find answers to,” Wright said.