A series of programs observing Constitution Day will be held during September, starting with an address by Brett Bursey at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, in the Alexander Room of Elliott University Center.

Bursey, who is director of the South Carolina Progressive Network, was arrested in Columbia, S.C., and charged with trespassing in October 2002 when he refused to go to a “free speech zone” during a visit by President Bush.

Although the charges were dropped, new charges were later brought by U.S. Attorney J. Strom Thurmond Jr. under a statute that allows the U.S. Secret Service to restrict access to areas the president is visiting.

Bursey, who faces a $5,000 fine and six months in jail, will discuss the case and related free speech issues. The program is free and open to the public.

Other events planned at UNCG are:

• Sept. 19-20, dramatic readings and discussion of the Constitution for students in three classes of “American Politics,” conducted by Dr. Tom Humphrey, UNCG Department of Theatre, and Dr. Jeff Colbert, UNCG Department of Political Science.

• Sept. 20, 3:30 p.m., Maple Room, EUC, panel discussion on the Constitution, with Dr. Charles Prysby and Dr. Susan Johnson, UNCG Department of Political Science; attorney Marshall Hurley; Dr. Katie Harriger, Wake Forest University Department of Political Science; and high school teacher Ray Parrish. Free and open to the public.

• Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m., EUC Auditorium, showing of “Beyond the Wall,” a documentary about the free speech movement and the North Carolina Speaker Ban Law, which prohibited communists from speaking on UNC system campuses from 1963-68. The film’s writer producer Gorham Kindem, UNC-Chapel Hill communication professor, will connect anti-Communist infringements upon civil liberties to contemporary anti-terrorist infringements via the USA PATRIOT Act by focusing on North Carolina’s Speaker Ban Law (1963-68). Free and open to the public.