A forum to celebrate the Constitution and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 will be sponsored Wednesday by the Ů��AV’s Office of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Legal Studies, Department of Political Science, Department of History, Lou Frey Institute, John C. Hitt Library and Student Government Association. The forum will focus on how different interpretations of the Constitution have changed over time and the effect it has on society.  

The event will be from 10 a.m. to noon at FAIRWINDS Alumni Center and is free to UCF students, faculty and staff members. Former Ambassador William J. Hughes and Congressman Peter Torkildsen will address the topic, after which they will join a panel alongside Legal Studies faculty members James Beckman and Cynthia Schmidt to answer questions.

“We encourage the involvement of UCF students, as this is a wonderful opportunity for them to be a part of an event with such prestigious speakers,” said Juan Lugo of the Office of Undergraduate Studies.  

For more information about the Constitution Day event

They’re heading to Orlando because the Ů��AV is hosting the competition.

UCF will host the national tournament April 11-13 at the Orange County Courthouse. The event will bring together the nation’s top undergraduate mock trial teams to compete in a simulated trial. Families of participating students may attend.

“Forty-eight teams have earned a bid to compete,” said Margarita Koblasz, the tournament coordinator and a faculty member in UCF’s Department of Legal Studies. “That’s down from 549 teams that began the road to nationals in February.”

A series of regional and open-round champion tournaments whittled down the competition to the top 48 teams, she added. UCF’s team placed first runner-up.

“Students put in an enormous amount of time preparing for and competing in these tournaments,” said legal studies’ Chair James Beckman. “They develop critical thinking, public speaking and leadership skills that will serve them the rest of their lives.”

At this week’s tournament, pairs of teams will be pitted against each other in a series of matches. One team will serve as the prosecution and the other as the defense. They’ll try a fictitious case involving a robbery, chase and death at an amusement park.

Nearly 190 real-life attorneys and judges from the region have volunteered to serve as judges. “The support of Central Florida’s legal community is invaluable,” Koblasz said.

The two top teams will compete in a final match at 5 p.m. on April 13.

UCF earned the coveted honor of hosting the national tournament because of its reputation for hosting such excellent regional tournaments, according to Beckman.

“Under Margarita’s leadership, UCF has set the standard,” Beckman said. “It’s certain to be a terrific event.”

Note:  The tournament is open to students and their families. However, local television station WKMG will provide live streaming of the final round, and Phipps Reporting will provide live streaming of a transcript. To view the live streams, visit . For the complete tournament schedule, visit .

James Beckman, chair of UCF’s Department of Legal Studies, is one of five Editorial Board members who worked with Editor Gregg Lee Carter to produce the publication. Two other UCF faculty members contributed as well.

The second edition, like the first edition published in 2002, presents a broad spectrum of opinions and research findings on guns in the United States. National experts in criminology, history, law, medicine, politics and social science contribute this information as entries in a three-volume encyclopedia.

The latest edition includes 450 entries on topics such as gun violence, gun control, gun rights, regulations and legislation, court decisions, pro- and anti-gun organizations, gun ownership, hunters and collectors, and public opinion toward guns. New topics include the Virginia Tech massacre and video games and gun violence.

Beckman is an attorney and former legal adviser with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. As an Editorial Board member, he recommended new authors and reviewed entry submissions. He also wrote 18 entries covering topics such as antiterrorism legislation and Supreme Court rulings.

Associate Professor Robert Wood, also an attorney and member of the Department of Legal Studies, wrote another four entries, including one on the Tucson, Arizona, massacre that severely injured former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. In addition, James Wright, a provost’s distinguished research professor of sociology at UCF, wrote an essay on felons and gun control.

The American Library Association named the first edition of Guns in American Society the Booklist Editors’ Best Reference Book Choice for 2003.

(Photo by Abi Bell)