UTSA hosts Oct. 25 talk by Socrates Cafe and Constitution Cafe founder and author
(Oct. 24, 2012) -- The UTSA Honors College, Gemini Ink Literary Arts Center and SA2020 will host "Breakthrough Thinkers: Constitution Café San Antonio Edition," a pair of dialogues featuring Christopher Phillips, an internationally renowned author and founder of the Socrates Café and Constitution Café dialogue groups.
Phillips will discuss how San Antonians can use the U.S. Constitution to become more active, engaged and effective citizens, in support of SA2020.
He will speak at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 25 in the University Center Retama Auditorium (2.02.02) on the UTSA Main Campus. The event is free and open to the public. Paid parking will be available in the Ximenes Avenue Garage.
Additionally, Phillips will speak at a Constitution Café Colloquium Luncheon at 11:30 a.m., Friday, Oct. 26 at Pearl Studio, 200 Grayson St., Suite 115, San Antonio. The luncheon is $50 for guests, $35 for teachers and students, or $350 for tables of 10. SA2020 CEO Darryl Byrd will introduce Phillips at the dialogue. UTSA alumnus Robert Rivard '96, editor of The Rivard Report, will facilitate the question-and-answer session at both events. A book signing will follow each event.
On Oct. 26, UTSA College of Public Policy students will present their Citizen Rights and Responsibilities, a bill of rights they developed for San Antonio. During the fall 2011 semester, UTSA social work graduate students spoke with area citizens and groups to gain an understanding of how people articulate their rights and responsibilities as citizens. Following the discussions, the students reviewed their findings, whittling down the information into a series of key messages. Using those overarching messages, they drafted the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities representing the voices from a broad cross-section of San Antonio citizens.
>> To learn more about the Oct. 26 luncheon or to reserve a seat, visit the Gemini Ink website.
The UTSA College of Public Policy is the lead partner of the SA2020 Government Accountability and Civic Engagement Focus area, one of 11 areas outlined in Mayor Julian Castro's SA2020 vision plan to transform San Antonio into a world-class city over the next eight years. To that end, UTSA is leading the effort to make San Antonio citizens deeply engaged as elected leaders, business leaders, volunteers and voters with the ultimate goal of making government more responsible and accountable to local citizens.