Ezekiel Kingsbury’25 reads from the Articles of the Constitution.As the sun shone around the clouds on a beautiful almost-autumn day in September, faculty, staff and students read the Constitution and its Amendments at the foot of Middle College. 

Organized by Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Provost Ron Watson, the event commemorated the founding document of the United States of America. In opening remarks, Prof. Watson invited the audience to engage with the text: “Some of what you hear will almost certainly bore you, while some will undoubtedly shock and disturb you.”  Prof. Watson spoke of the United States Constitution as a revolutionary document at its inception, “one that declared a collective commitment by the Framers and many of the fellow Americans they represented to a then radical project - democratic self-governance without the gaze or influence of a monarch.” 

Readers joined from across the college, including student Ezekiel Kingsbury’25, Registrar Yaffa Grossman, Provost Donna Oliver, Assistant Professor of Political Science Klara Fredriksson, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Gregory Koutnik.

“Reading it aloud with colleagues was such a novel experience for me,” said Prof. Koutnik. “It’s so important to balance the goals of studying the document we have while also being mindful of the ways it might be changed to fully realize our country’s highest ideals.”

President Eric Boynton and the First Pups attend the Constitution Day reading.