TEXARKANA, Texas — Texas A&M University-Texarkana students posed questions to political science professors Dr. Gary Bugh and Dr. Daniel Mintun about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights after a lecture on Thursday at Eagle Hall.
The event was in partnership with the law-oriented greek organization Phi Delta Phi and TAMU-T’s Program for Learning and Community Engagement. Attendees got a free pocket Constitution and pizza.
“We hold this in celebration of Constitution Day, which is a national holiday. It’s officially on Sept. 17, but that’s falling on a weekend so we did it today,” Bugh said.
Student Justin LeGrand asked questions of the lecturers, mainly pertaining to term limits on senators and other government representatives.
“I came because I wanted to learn more about the constitution. I learned that I like the way it laid out the foundation of our country. I also wanted to get a pocket Constitution,” LeGrand said.
According to TAMU-T, Bugh has written about constitutional law and the Supreme Court in peer-reviewed publications. Mintun specializes in international relations and conflict and recently gave an on-campus talk about the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
The professors spoke of the three branches of government: legislative, judicial and executive; how the Supreme Court justices are appointed and approved to their positions; term limits for senators; and the approaches that the Constitution took in regard to pirates in the 1700s.
Texarkana transplant James Robinson contributed questions to the lecture and said that he wanted to get a better understanding of the U.S. government.
“I’ve always been infatuated with it. I thought it would be highly informative to listen to a new perspective,” Robinson said.