The Hillsdale College Press has released its new Constitution reader.
“It’s long been in the works,” said Douglas Jeffrey, Vice President of External Affairs. “About 10 years in fact.”
Similar in function to the college’s Heritage readers, the new volume will be used in the required Constitution courses beginning next fall.
“In the past the politics department was using an unwieldy packet of primary documents for the course,” Jeffrey said. “There’s long been a desire to develop an alternative.”
The reader contains many of the same documents as the old spiral-bound version.
As of last week, the reader was made available on Amazon.com, but it was released earlier this month in the college bookstore.
“Right now students get a discount for it at the bookstore, but next semester they will be paid for through student fees,” said Professor of Politics Will Morrisey.
The politics department collaborated with the external affairs office to put the reader together; members of the politics department wrote introductions to the various sections in the reader.
“It’s been in the works for a while, but the main effort was in the last year or two, pushing it ahead,” Morrisey said. “The selected documents in the reader do not deviate from what we’ve been teaching.”
In addition to its use in the classroom, the Constitution reader will be promoted in conjunction with the new online Constitution course offered through the college.
“Given the mood of the country these days a course on the Constitution was the logical step.” Jeffrey said.
“We’ve been getting a lot of requests from people to do something like this.”
Morrisey said the class “advances the principles the college stands for.”
“More and more [people] are seeking to understand their rights, and many are increasingly serious about fulfilling their civic duties,” Director of the Kirby Center David Bobb said. “We emphasize to them that both endeavors start with careful study.”
The new course runs from late February through April and was taped in December. Each lecture will be accompanied by a question-and-answer session with faculty.
“The response to Dr. Arnn’s Introduction to the Constitution course last fall was extremely good,” Morrisey said. “We had 200,000 people participate.”
