On Sept. 18, Bellevue College hosted the Associated Student Governance and Office of Student Legislative Affairs Constitution Day celebration. The event included free welcome packs, popcorn, voter registration forms, readings of the constitution, guest speakers, and free “Pocket Constitutions,” as well as local discussions about the necessity for constitutional rights or lack thereof.
An anonymous student at Bellevue College was asked about what he thought of the Constitution Day celebrations and what level of importance he put the political involvement of Bellevue College students.He responded by saying, “I think that there are some constitutional rights that should be limited, like freedom of speech and the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.”
“I don’t think that groups such as ISIS, KKK or any other extremist group should have the right to speak, act without being met with direct force. As for the rights to not have the police come down on them, I believe we should be able to act freely in the interest of national security with no regards to individual rights as long as it does something to keep Americans safe.”
Contrastingly, Jacob Thornton, another Bellevue college student, said “The first and fourth amendments are essential to the survival of our rights as humans and our liberties as Americans in this world. Nations such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and fascist Italy all either didn’t protect these rights or had ways for the government to quickly and quietly remove them from their human rights.”
Aside from educating students and registering them to vote, the Constitution Day celebration was meant to be a welcoming event for new students on campus, as well as a tool to reach out to already existing Bellevue College students to interact with them, educate them on their rights and about the programs and projects that the ASG and OSLA are undertaking on campus.
OSLA Representative Abner Pagunuran expressed the importance of political involvement of Bellevue College students in elections at every level and making sure that their voices are heard on campus. Pagunuran also spoke about how the OSLA is dedicated to protecting the inclusivity and ease of access of all students to an education at Bellevue College. OSLA has been working on projects for Bellevue College students, such as common applications for students with disabilities, so that they do not need to re-apply to each college that they are looking at. They also support DACA students and provide them with legislative force and actively protect the Title Nine rights of Bellevue college students.
Pagunuran said, “As of now, we will be hiring three interns soon to be student lobbyists at the city, county, and state levels. Therefore, it’ll be both a job and a class credit. In addition, we’ll be having a lobby day coming up early winter quarter.” Lobby day is when OSLA takes students down to Olympia and speak face to face with representatives and senators about Bellevue College student legislative agenda.