Students made a poor showing at the Constitution Day event at the Student Services Plaza on Sept. 17.

“More could’ve been done with advertising for Constitution Day,” ASU President Nakari Syon said. “I think it was just bad timing, and more students were focused on midterms.”

Syon said he could not even attend the event, due to a midterm exam.

The event started at 11 a.m. and had four booths set up with information from the Contra Costa Health Services department, Disabled Students Programs and Services, the Financial Aid Office and the counseling department.

Many of the tables set out in front of Student Services remained empty as students simply walked by. One hour past the start time, roughly 10 students stopped to explore the plethora of information presented at the booths.

Syon said that advertising for the event was limited because of regulations about where the ASU can place fliers.

“We have to post ads on designated message boards around the campus,” he said. “We can’t just post things up on doors in students’ faces or large blank walls for students to see.”

Coordinator of Supported Education Services Anntheia Farr, who set up a booth, said, “(Constitution Day) is supposed to bring awareness to the rights on campus that students have. Students need to connect with the services on campus.”

Student Life Coordinator Erika Greene said, “The goal is to have students come down and learn about student services and chat about what the Constitution is. We want to inform students of the Constitution and about the rights that they have.”

Greene said, Constitution Day is mandated by Title IV funds and is an event that takes place at colleges across the nation. Students here at Contra Costa College who stopped by the Student Services Plaza could have picked up a pocket sized U.S Constitution book, information about student services and prizes from the booths set up by the campus departments.

Some of the items available are stress balls, Board of Governors waiver forms, a spin prize wheel and Constitution quizzes.

Psychology major Zakarriyah Burns said he was glad he stopped and was introduced to some online resources that could benefit him. He said he had not heard of the event before or seen advertisements for the occasion but decided to stop regardless.

“It gives students a chance to see who’s working in the background. I’ve seen a few people walk by so hopefully more will stop (at the event),” Burns said.

Few students did.

There were two separate events that took place around the campus throughout the day with one being a speech by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Christine Pelosi on the importance of Constitution Day and a movie screening of “Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties” at the Knox Center.

The two other events exhibited much greater participation than that of the one Student Services Plaza.

While participants merely trickled into the Student Services aspect of the Constitution Day, Pelosi’s speech on the importance of the Constitution filled LA-100 with around 100 attendees.  The screening that took place in the Library had around 50 participants.