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CORVALLIS, Ore. - The First Amendment will be the focus of a Sept. 16 panel discussion and town hall meeting at Oregon State University to mark Constitution Day.

Panelists will discuss issues related to First Amendment protections of freedom of expression. They also will engage the audience in a conversation about how universities, and in particular OSU, handle legal, social, pedagogical and political concerns related to academic freedom and free speech on campus, and in the university community, at a crucial time for free speech and activism in higher education.

Speakers include Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole; OSU General Counsel Rebecca Gose; Associate Professor of Political Science Andrew Valls; and Associate Professor of Philosophy Joseph Orosco, who also is president of the OSU chapter of American Association of University Professors.

Christopher McKnight Nichols, associate professor of history and director of the OSU Citizenship and Crisis initiative, will moderate the event. A town hall discussion will follow.

Constitution Day is an American federal observance that commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

The event will be held from 10-11:30 a.m. in the Pan-African Sankofa, Room 213, at the Memorial Union on the Corvallis campus. It is free and open to the public.