Convocation seminars give students food for thought
Constitution excluded women,
says University law expert
By Kathy Proffit
Emerald Contributor
From the beginning of constitutional planning,
women were excluded from participating in the pro
cess. and they were considered irrelevant and ex
traneous by the founding fathers and the intellectuals
whose conceived notions formed the core of this docu
ment. said a University law professor Monday
afternoon
Susan | Swift, an associate professor of law. spoke at
the "Women and the Constitution" seminar Monday
afternoon during the University's t'187 convocation
seminar
Hoi ause of this exclusion, coupled with the denial
of the right to vote, women were not considered
citizens in their true politital content, according to
Swift
‘If you insist that woman be the
same as men in terms of the moral
judgement standard, then they will
obviously be considered inferior to
men.’”
— Susan J. Swift
Swift's topic. "Original Intent and the Language of
the Founding Fathers." was one of three parts of the
seminar.
Swift asked if women shouldn't be concerned that
the Constitution of today, written in 1787. reflects sole
ly the thoughts and notions of men as women were not
allowed tu actively participate.
doth women and men have the capacity to unders
tand morality, yet the male standard is considered to be
the norm, she said. In order for changes to lie made,
that measurement has to bo changed
"If you insist that women lie the same as men in
terms of the moral judgement standard, then they will
obviously lie considered inferior to men." she said
because women an1 a victimized group, they need
articulation to offset the male hierarchial society
underlying the Constitution. According to Swift, this
should come through a reconstruction of the document
where the voice of women is heard
Human and institutional contexts along with
abstrac t rules are needed in the Constitution to encom
pass life and morality in the female population. Swift
said
Turn to Women, Page 5
Photo* b> Ttd Shepler
Susan Swift (above) spoke on “Women end the
Constitution" Monday afternoon in one of two con
vocation seminars. Swift is an University associate
professor of law.
lostie Harris, also an associate professor of law.
spoke later in the same seminar on whether equality
could be gender nueiral.
Seminar on First Amendment
and advertising invokes debate
By Mike Fisher
Emerald Contributer
The founding fathers could not have foreseen the
growth of the advertising industry or imagined the
need to address it in the Bill of Rights, agreed Universi
ty professors Daniel Pope and Tim Gleason during a
convocation seminar Monday.
The seminar, entitled "Advertising and the First
Amendment: Madison and the Marlboro Man," dealt
with the appropriateness of protecting commercial
speech under the First Amendment.
Gleason, an assistant professor of journalism,
began by outlining the history of Supreme Court atten
tion to commercial speech from its stance in 1942 that
such speech should not receive constitutional protec
tion to its recent rulings expanding the limits of com
mercial speech.
‘If free speech is grounded in per
sonal liberty, it should be an in
dividual and not an institutional
"The distinction between commercial and political
speech is inadequate." said Gleason.
"The underlying argument for protection of com
mercial speech is not for the right of advertisers to
advertise their products, but for the right of consumers
to receive information about these products," he said.
"Both the regulation of advertising and the protec
tion of commercial speech are based on the notion of
promoting the public good." he added.
Pope, an associate professor in history, linked the
growth of the advertising industry in the mid-19th cen
tury to the Industrial Revolution of the same period and
pointed out that "the advertising of this age was
stigmatized by the grossly false nature of many of the
ads.”
This led to self-regulation in the ad industry and
acceptance of government control, characterized by the
creation of the Federal Trade Commission in 1914,
Pope said.
He noted that such regulation has decreased the
amount of deceptive advertising but has led to an
"unsettling" number of ads that'make no useful claim
about their products."
"Our concern for advertising and free speech and
— Daniel Pope
Turn to Advertising, Page 5
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