SAGU AIC Celebrates Constitution Day

Phoenix, Arizona – September 15, 2017 – As Constitution Day approaches, Southwestern Assemblies of God University American Indian College (SAGU AIC) is proud to encourage this significant day and the impact of this event in U.S. history.

Dr. Joseph J. Saggio, Administrative Dean of SAGU AIC, says, “Constitution Day is especially important to a campus with a high percentage of Native Americans because in the past many Native Americans were marginalized and disenfranchised from the voting process.  In effect, the Constitution didn’t mean anything to many of them, but today that has changed.”

SAGU AIC encourages its faculty, staff and students to be familiar with the Constitution and the rights it contains for all Americans in order to be well-informed citizens of the United States of America.

Constitution Day became a national observance in 2004 after Senator Robert Byrd lobbied for a bill designating September 17 as the day for U.S. citizens to recognize and honor the most influential document in American history.

The Constitution officially took effect on September 17, 1787, and has since been amended a total of 27 times. The main purpose of this document is to establish the rights of all American citizens and to provide direction regarding the function of the Government. The Constitution provides the framework for law and order. It also describes the roles of each of the government’s federal branches: Judiciary, Legislative and Executive.

The first 10 amendments of this document are known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was composed by James Madison in response to call from several states for greater constitutional protection. The Bill of rights is focused on individual liberties of U.S. citizens while also listing specific prohibitions on governmental power.

While the Bill of Rights may be the most well-known section of this document, the Constitution and its amendments as a whole define civil liberties such as:

• freedom of religion
• speech
• to assemble and petition

The Constitution also provides citizens the right to:

• possess firearms
• a public trial for criminal offenses
• to question unusual punishment
• to question property seizures and arrests without a warrant

The Constitution of the United States is available online at http://constitutionus.com/

Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) American Indian College (AIC) is the nation’s only private Christian college serving primarily Native American students. Established in 1957, AIC now serves nearly 25 tribes as well as other ethnicities.