For anyone who has ever wondered what life would be like without the First Amendment, the communication department is putting on ‘Food For Thought’ as part of the First Amendment Festival.

At the event, students will have the chance to sign away their First Amendment rights for a slice of free cheese pizza.

What people don’t know about the First Amendment can still hurt them

Cynthia Mitchell, communication professor and event coordinator for the festival, said that the idea to hold a First Amendment festival came during the start of her teaching career after seeing a research study done by the Knight Foundation.

In the study, 100,000 high school seniors were polled about the First Amendment and their opinions of it. Mitchell was shocked by their responses.

“Half of [the students in the study] thought that the press should have to get government approval before publishing,” Mitchell said. “And a third of them thought the First Amendment went too far.”

As a journalist and educator, the lack of knowledge about the First Amendment in the next generation was terrifying for Mitchell.

“I was alarmed. I was shocked. I just wanted to run into traffic,” Mitchell said.

The results of the study convinced Mitchell that something needed to be done.

Since then, Mitchell has worked to educate Central students about their First Amendment rights through various means like the Food For Thought event.

The idea for the event came from Michael Koretzky, a journalism professor at Florida Atlantic University, Mitchell said.

“[Koretzky] came up with this concept that you would have this no First Amendment zone, and you’d have to sign away your rights to get your lunch,” Mitchell said.

During the event, students will be exposed to what life would be like without the First Amendment, Mitchell said. ‘Protesters,’ ‘religious figures’ and ‘journalists’ will be hauled away by government ‘thugs’ when they try to express their freedoms.

“I’m always a protester who gets hauled away and it always pisses me off,” Mitchell said. “It gets me at a gut level.”

The event should be edu-taining

Sam Maupin, a broadcast journalism senior, participated during last year’s event as a journalist and said that he definitely plans to participate again this year.

“My job was to get yelled at and get hauled off and to demonstrate what it would be like [to live without First Amendment rights],” Maupin said.

The event, while fun and lighthearted, managed to raise Maupin’s ire.

“You start getting this guttural feeling of ‘this is not right,’” Maupin said. “For anyone, whether you’re a journalist or not, First Amendment rights in this country are something we really do take seriously.”

When a person’s First Amendment rights are taken away, it’s a horrible feeling, Maupin said.

“The biggest thing I think people are going to get out of it is just to experience that this is what the world looks like without First Amendment freedoms,” Maupin said.

Matt Morse, a junior and dual broadcast journalism and criminal justice major, who also participated during last year’s event, said that it should be an eye-opening experience for attendees.

For Morse, it was the lack of education about the First Amendment that stood out the most.

“Quite frankly, I think it’s a little sad, but I think [attendees] are going to get a reeducation of what they learned back in elementary school,” Morse said. “I remember, from last year, a lot of the students on campus could not name the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.”

Overall, Morse found the event to be a good experience and a way to meet new people.

“Really good times, really fun. I feel like the participation and the energy that we put off from that definitely got some attention and some notice from the people walking by,” Morse said.