:: Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement
Events
Fall
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Constitution Day (September)
An American federal holiday that recognizes the ratification of the United States Constitution. It is observed on September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787. The law establishing the holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd to the Omnibus spending bill of 2004. Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known as "Citizenship Day". In addition to renaming the holiday "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day," the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day. In May 2005, the United States Department of Education announced the enactment of this law and that it would apply to any school receiving federal funds of any kind. At UMass Boston, we generally observe Constitution Day during our Convocation exercises in mid-September.
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Volunteer Fair (late September)
Student, faculty, and staff discover opportunities to serve community agencies addressing issues of immigration and citizenship, hunger, health, homelessness, youth, senior citizens, the environment, substance abuse, domestic violence, etc.
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Helping Hands (mid-December)
During the holiday season, participants reach out to homeless and foster children through the Hyde Park office of the Department of Social Services. Activities have included individualized gift giving, as well as drop-in gift wrap services and holiday parties.
Spring
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Raise Your Voice
A Month of Action is sponsored by Campus Compact to increase, celebrate, and deepen the student civic engagement efforts on college campuses around the country. During this month, students will speak in a collective voice about the importance of promoting student civic engagement. Events that galvanize students will be planned and organized on over 250 campuses around the country that attempt to creatively activate students in the democratic and community-building process. Although the specific activities and events taking place during this month will vary from campus to campus, all will facilitate opportunities for students to speak out and act to create a more vibrant democracy. Activities vary and have included campus-wide discussions on public issues and civic responsibility, on-line forums, a speaker series, celebrations of student civic engagement, teach-ins, voter registration drives, policy issue discussions, non-profit fairs, or public officials meeting with students on campus. These events could also be connected with festivals, sporting events, concerts, cookouts, or other attention grabbing activities that attract students not previously engaged. At UMass Boston, OSLCO coordinates this event with the Chancellor’s office and it generally takes place in late March or early April.
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Annual UMass Boston Good Neighbor Day (late April)
Past activities of this annual event have involved day-long projects like painting shelters, preparing murals for school children to paint, organizing recovery resources, planting gardens, preparing meals for AIDS patients, and sorting food for a food bank.
For more information about any event, please contact OSLCE Director Sherrod Williams.