On Sept. 17, Sacred Heart University students presented the changes, or hacks, they would make to the Constitution to a panel of judges at the annual Constitution Hackathon. The event took place at the Michelle Loris Forum and was open to students and faculty. The event also honored America’s 250th anniversary.
| Alex de la Teja, Staff Writer and Photographer |
“This Hackathon started in September of 2023,” said Dr. Marylena Mantas-Kourounis in the School of Political Science and Global Affairs.
It has remained an annual event at SHU since, with Mantas-Kourounis organizing the event this year.
“It’s an important event to draw attention to a founding document, but also to look beyond our current polarized politics toward something positive,” said Dr. Steven Michels, Department Chair of Political Science and Global Affairs.
“In PO-121 Democracy in America courses, students are asked to answer the question ‘if you could hack into the constitution what would you change and why?’ At the end of each semester, the instructors share with me assignments that showed promise, and from that point on, I review that list of potential participants and invite a few to formally participate,” said Mantas-Kourounis.
This year, the invited students included sophomores Oliva D’Alessio, Tyler Ingram, and Isabella Moschello. All three are part of SHU’s pre-law track.
“Students have to defend their ideas and respond to criticism. They learn that constitutional questions rarely have simple answers, and that democratic citizenship requires not only having a position, but also listening, evaluating arguments, and being willing to reconsider,” said Mantas-Kourounis.
After each student presented their argument, they were asked questions about their proposed changes by the panel of judges and by their peers sitting before them. Some audience members were political science students, while others attended the event as a requirement for their Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT) course. CIT asks students to consider what it means to be human and live a life of meaning and purpose by attending presentations with guest speakers.
“Judges are selected based on their expertise in their fields, and we try to get a range of disciplines, including History and Religion, in addition to Political Science,” said Michels.
The judges awarded D’Alessio the victory for her argument for a national standard, as opposed to individual state regulation, regarding criminal conviction and voting rights.
“We are still celebrating a document that was made over 200 years ago,” Ingram said. “I am optimistic and looking forward to the future of trying to find ways to improve our country in the next 250 years.”
This year’s Hackathon not only acknowledged how the Constitution can be adapted to better suit modern day law, but it paid tribute to the document that guided legislation in America
over two centuries ago. To further highlight America’s 250th anniversary, Hackathon participants and audience members were invited to attend the SHU choral program’s performance of the Bill of Rights to music in the Edgerton Center.
“We thought it was a great way to commemorate Constitution Day on America’s 250th anniversary,” said Mantas-Kourounis.
“College campuses should be places where students can explore difficult questions, encounter perspectives different from their own, and learn how to engage in dialogue and courageous civil discourse. The Constitution provides a particularly meaningful frame for those conversations because it connects directly to questions of rights, equality, representation and political power,” said Mantas-Kourounis
