First Amendment Days 2018 – Talk Is Cheap. Free Speech Isn’t

Depth and Dialogue: Freedom and Respect

9 a.m., 169 Hamilton Hall

Hear how campus leaders protect free expression while promoting inclusion. Panelists include Michael Norton, J.D., ISU University Counsel; Dr. Jonathan Sturm, professor of music and past president of the Faculty Senate; Daniela Flores, PhD Candidate in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology and the ISU Chapter President of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). John Whyte, Canadian constitutional law scholar, will moderate.

Depth and Dialogue: Thinking Like a Journalist

10 a.m., 172 Hamilton Hall

Learn how journalists make tough news judgments. Presented by Emily Barske, editor in chief of the Iowa State Daily, and Erin Jordan, Cedar Rapids Gazette investigative reporter.

Depth and Dialogue: Speaking Up About Workplace Harassment

12:10 p.m., 163 Hamilton Hall

Hear the groundbreaking story of former Iowa GOP Senate staffer Kirsten Anderson.

Kirsten Anderson is on a mission to end workplace harassment through education. She found herself an unlikely advocate for those facing harassment in the workplace after she took a stand against her former employer: the State of Iowa. On May 17, 2013 she was fired from her job Communications Director for Iowa Senate Republicans after filing her fourth complaint about repeated harassment and retaliatory behavior by staff and lawmakers at the Iowa Statehouse. She sued the State of Iowa and Iowa Senate Republicans for wrongful termination, harassment and retaliation and won.

Kirsten has a degree in broadcast journalism and is a 2008 Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute graduate. She’s President Elect of the local chapter of the Association of Women in Communications and in her free time enjoys sharing the hilarious random things her eight year-old son says and attending any live music show with her husband.

Depth and Dialogue: #metoo at ISU

2:10 p.m., 172 Hamilton Hall

Discover how the national movement is influencing the Iowa State community. Margo Foreman, Assistant Vice President for Iowa State’s Equal Opportunity Office, will present.

Depth and Dialogue: Shedding Light on Mental Illness

7 p.m., Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall

Explore how panelists are using their platforms to raise awareness. Panelists include Kathie Obradovich, Des Moines Register political columnist and Greenlee School lecturer, and Scott Moss, “Out of the Darkness” Iowa State University campus walk organizer.

Is Democracy Dying?

John Whyte Public Lecture

Democracy relies on civility and sustains political stability through relationships – ones built on consent, freedom, accountability and social responsibility. But even with its successful track record, democracy seems to be at risk. It is coping poorly with novel personalities, unequal distribution, poor manners, deep ethnic and social divisions, changes in communications systems and shifts in legal and political morals. History is full of revolutionary transformations. Is this what democracy now faces?

John Whyte was educated at the University of Toronto, Queen’s University and Harvard Law School. He was a member of the Queen’s University Faculty of Law for 28 years, serving as its Dean from 1987 to 1992. He has also taught at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and at the University of Toronto Faculty of law, and at Niigata University, Tilburg University and the University of Melbourne. He was the Douglas McK. Brown Visiting Professor at University of British Columbia and held the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair at the University of Saskatchewan.

He has been awarded an honorary degree by York University.

His public service career includes serving as the Director of Constitutional Law for the Government of Saskatchewan during national constitutional negotiations from 1979 to 1982. In this position, he participated in the drafting of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982, including the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He also served as Saskatchewan’s Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney-General from 1997 to 2002. He has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in a number of constitutional cases.

He has also been part of constitutional reform processes in the Republic of Georgia, Nepal and Vietnam.

 

Hashtag Mosaic and Photo Booth

9 a.m.-4 p.m., Central Campus

Help us create a billboard-size Hashtag Mosaic with Luster that showcases the five freedoms of the First Amendment.

• Post pictures to your public Instagram and Twitter accounts using the hashtag #isufirst between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
• Pick up a print of your photo taken during the event at the First Amendment Days tent on Central Campus. We’ll also have a photo booth on hand to add to the fun!
• Another print may become part of the Hashtag Mosaic. The mosaic will be revealed at 2 p.m. with Insomnia cookies. Those who participate and stop by the tent will also receive free T-shirts while supplies last.

Democalypse March

9:30 a.m., meet on the Curtiss Hall steps

What’s it like to live in a society without the First Amendment? High school students, their advisers/instructors/educators and the Iowa State community are invited to participate in the Democalypse March to experience firsthand how life changes without each of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. After the march, Iowa State Daily staffers will work with visiting high school students on a hands-on assignment. If you’re affiliated with a high school and are interested in participating, contact Julie Roosa at jroosa@iastsate.edu.

Feast on the First

2 p.m., Central Campus

Join the Iowa State community for free food, fun and demonstrations of the five freedoms on Iowa State’s Central Campus.

Hashtag Mosaic Reveal

8 p.m., Benton Auditorium, Scheman Building

Drop by for Insomnia cookies as we reveal the Hashtag Mosaic! After the mosaic is revealed, stick around until 4 p.m. to continue taking photos and get souvenir prints.

Talk is Cheap. Free Speech Isn’t: Why the First Amendment Is Worth It

 

Paul Kix Keynote Lecture

First Amendment freedoms are vital to democracy in the United States. Paul Kix knows that. The deputy editor of ESPN, The Magazine, just wrote a book about a daring French aristocrat who became a nightmare for the Germans during World War II. Fifteen years after helping with Iowa State University’s first celebration of the First Amendment, Kix is returning to Ames as the keynote speaker for the 16th-annual festivities. He will argue that 2018 is a critical year for celebrating and using these five freedoms and that universities must embrace all sorts of speech, not just messages that support consensus views.

Kix will also present a reading of his book followed by a Q&A and book signing, at 2 p.m. April 14 at the Ames Public Library.

Paul Kix is an alumnus of Iowa State’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. Since he graduated in 2003 Kix has written for such publications as the New Yorker, GQ, New York, Men’s Journal, and the Wall Street Journal.

His first book, The Saboteur, was just published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins. It’s a nonfiction narrative based on the war exploits of Robert de La Rochefoucauld, a French aristocrat who became a Resistance leader during WWII, escaping three times from the Nazis, and gaining expertise from a secret band of British commandos on whom Ian Fleming based James Bond.

 

Designed for leaders and influencers, this workshop will show you how to champion the First Amendment in your community, school or organization. For more information, contact Julie Roosa at jroosa@iastate.edu.

Greenlee School and Kappa Tau Alpha Diversity & Inclusion Awards Presentation

9 a.m., 169 Hamilton

Ally Karsyn of Siouxland Public Media and Emily Blobaum of the Iowa State Daily will be honored and present their work.

Free Expression through Artmaking

Explore the meaning of belonging through art in one of two sessions led by Ally Karsyn

Book Reading and Signing with Paul Kix

2 p.m., Ames Public Library, Rotary Room

Join Paul Kix at the Ames Public Library for a book reading, author Q&A and book signing event.

ReACT Galley – First Amendment Exhibit

Kirsten Anderson is on a mission to end workplace harassment through education. She found herself an unlikely advocate for those facing harassment in the workplace after she took a stand against her former employer: the State of Iowa. On May 17, 2013 she was fired from her job Communications Director for Iowa Senate Republicans after filing her fourth complaint about repeated harassment and retaliatory behavior by staff and lawmakers at the Iowa Statehouse. She sued the State of Iowa and Iowa Senate Republicans for wrongful termination, harassment and retaliation and won.

Kirsten has a degree in broadcast journalism and is a 2008 Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute graduate. She’s President Elect of the local chapter of the Association of Women in Communications and in her free time enjoys sharing the hilarious random things her eight year-old son says and attending any live music show with her husband.

Emily Blobaum is a senior in journalism and mass communication at Iowa State University. She is also the managing editor of content and a photojournalist at the Iowa State Daily. She has a passion for multimedia documentary journalism but also enjoys taking photos of athletic events and writing features about students from diverse backgrounds.

Blobaum has interned at Iowa Public Television as a production assistant and the Herald Publishing Company as a photographer. She was raised in Des Moines, Iowa, and enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors.

Blobaum is a recipient of the 2018 Greenlee School and Kappa Tau Alpha Diversity & Inclusion Award. She will be be recognized and share her work at a presentation ceremony at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 13, at 169 Hamilton Hall.

Ally Karsyn is the founder, producer and host of Ode, a live storytelling series where community members tell true stories on stage to promote positive impact through empathy. Each event is recorded for broadcast on Siouxland Public Media, the NPR affiliate in Sioux City, Iowa, where she is the arts producer and afternoon announcer. She received the 2017 Images & Voices of Hope Restorative Narrative Fellowship for her work on the storytelling series. Ode also won Current’s 2017 Local That Works contest.

Karsyn is a former features reporter and columnist for the Sioux City Journal. She received the 2016 Genevieve Mauck Stoufer Outstanding Young Iowa Journalists Award and the 2016 Jay P. Wagner Prize for Young Journalists from the Iowa Newspaper Association.

Karsyn is a recipient of the 2018 Greenlee School and Kappa Tau Alpha Diversity & Inclusion Award. She will be recognized and share her work at a presentation ceremony at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 13, at 169 Hamilton Hall. She will also lead a session exploring the meaning of belonging through art at 10 a.m. following the presentation ceremony in 172 Hamilton.

Paul Kix is an alumnus of Iowa State’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. Since he graduated in 2003 Kix has written for such publications as the New Yorker, GQ, New York, Men’s Journal, and the Wall Street Journal.

His first book, The Saboteur, was just published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins. It’s a nonfiction narrative based on the war exploits of Robert de La Rochefoucauld, a French aristocrat who became a Resistance leader during WWII, escaping three times from the Nazis, and gaining expertise from a secret band of British commandos on whom Ian Fleming based James Bond.

Kix will present “Talk is Cheap. Free Speech Isn’t: Why the First Amendment Is Worth It” at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 12, at Benton Auditorium in the Scheman Building.

Kix will also present a reading of his book followed by a Q&A and book signing, at 2 p.m. April 14 at the Ames Public Library.

John Whyte was educated at the University of Toronto, Queen’s University and Harvard Law School. He was a member of the Queen’s University Faculty of Law for 28 years, serving as its Dean from 1987 to 1992. He has also taught at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and at the University of Toronto Faculty of law, and at Niigata University, Tilburg University and the University of Melbourne. He was the Douglas McK. Brown Visiting Professor at University of British Columbia and held the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair at the University of Saskatchewan.

He has been awarded an honorary degree by York University.

His public service career includes serving as the Director of Constitutional Law for the Government of Saskatchewan during national constitutional negotiations from 1979 to 1982. In this position, he participated in the drafting of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982, including the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He also served as Saskatchewan’s Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney-General from 1997 to 2002. He has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in a number of constitutional cases.

He has also been part of constitutional reform processes in the Republic of Georgia, Nepal and Vietnam.

Whyte will present “Is Democracy Dying?” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, at Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium in Howe Hall.