The Florida Constitution’s 50th birthday is coming up, and UF plans to celebrate.
Today from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., UF will have a discussion focused on Florida constitutional revisions, which are changes to the state constitution made every 20 years.
“This is a one-in-20-years opportunity for students to go out and see what it’s like to make a change for the state of Florida,” said Shelby Taylor, digital/communications director of UF’s Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
The two-part panel of previous governors and constitutional commission members will discuss the last two revision commissions. The panel will be hosted by UF’s Levin College of Law in conjunction with the Graham Center and the Center for Governmental Responsibility. It will also look ahead to issues the next revision commission will discuss in 2017.
The event is free for students and the Gainesville community. The discussion will be held in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom in Holland Hall’s Room 180 and will also be live-streamed on the Graham Center website.
UF second-year law student Marisol Silva said she is looking forward to the event because it relates to her summer internship with Make the Road New York.
“My experience working (through my internship) this summer for the marginalized, low-income Latino-immigrant community has taught me that law students have a responsibility to stand up and use their voices for social change by becoming politically engaged,” the 22-year-old said.
Sebastian Wright, a first-year UF business graduate student, will also attend. He said he thinks state and local legislatures are overlooked.
“For a long time, I had the mentality that national politics were what mattered,” the 21-year-old said. “I’ve just recently started realizing otherwise. I’m trying to increase my knowledge on state and local government so I can impact change in these areas. The panel seemed like a great way to do that.”
