MTSU will celebrate “Constitutional Responsibility and Civil Society” during its Centennial Constitution Week Sept. 11-20 on campus.

Events scheduled for the 2011 celebration include:

All week

• Explore “John Adams: Unbound,” the traveling exhibit that examines how books shaped the second U.S. president and his contributions to American thought, on the first floor of the James E. Walker Library.

• View “Constitutional Principles,” MTSU art students’ posters of constitutional ideals, in the Walker Library lobby, Todd Art Gallery and Cope Administration Building lobby.

• Read portions of the Constitution, posted on signs on campus.

Sunday, Sept. 11

MTSU students will participate in the Rutherford County 9/11 Memorial Commemoration at 2 p.m. at the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department, located at 940 New Salem Highway.

Tuesday, Sept. 13

• “John Adams: A Lasting Legacy” panel discussion with Drs. Robb McDaniel, Lynn Nelson, John Vile, and James H. Williams of MTSU, 11:20 a.m., Walker Library first floor.

• “Civility, the Constitution and the Courts,” the Centennial Constitution Day Distinguished Lecture from James A. Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, at 4:30 p.m. in the T. Earl Hinton Music Hall in the Wright Music Building.

Wednesday, Sept. 14

Meet President John Adams at Walker Library: George Baker will portray the nation’s second president and writer of the Massachusetts commonwealth constitution, from which the U.S. Constitution was developed.

Thursday, Sept. 15

Print your own copy of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on MTSU’s replica 18th-century printing press. This event is scheduled on the Walker Library portico from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sept. 15-16

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday on MTSU’s Keathley University Center Knoll, you can:

• Sign the U.S. Constitution.
• Register to vote.
• Talk to “James Madison,” framer of the U.S. Constitution and the nation’s fourth president, and “first lady Dolley Madison.”
• screen-print a T-shirt of Constitution-inspired designs created by students of Printer’s Proof. You can bring your own shirt or buy one on-site.
• hear socially conscious songs of patriotism and protest from recording industry students.
• make parchment with agribusiness/agriscience students.
• learn about campus civic-engagement initiatives by MTSU student organizations.

Friday, Sept. 16

Join the university community at 10 a.m. on the KUC Knoll for a public reading of the U.S. Constitution.

Saturday, Sept. 17: National Constitution Day

Tuesday, Sept. 20

Join “Living the First Amendment,” a conversation with John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center, and John Michael Seigenthaler, former NBC News anchor and CEO of Seigenthaler Public Relations of New York, at 1 p.m. in Room 221 of the Learning Resources Center.

For more information about Constitution Week events at MTSU, visit the American Democracy Project’s website at www.mtsu.edu/~amerdem or email amerdem@mtsu.edu.

Constitution Week sponsors include the American Democracy Project, MTSU’s Distinguished Lecture Committee, the James E. Walker Library, MTSU Public History Program, the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership and the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies.