Constitutional Convention Media Boot Camp features Benjamin Center Director

In anticipation of the 2017 voter referendum on whether to authorize a convention to consider revising the New York State Constitution, a group of sponsors led by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government of SUNY is hosting a Constitutional Convention Media Boot Camp, aimed at demystifying the Constitutional Convention process for journalism professionals.

The Boot Camp panel features five experts on the New York State Constitution, including Gerald Benjamin, associate vice president for regional engagement and director of The Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives at SUNY New Paltz.

Benjamin has extensive experience with the Constitutional Convention process, on which the New York State Constitution requires a vote every 20 years. From 1993-95, he served as research director for the NYS Constitution Revision Commission, and was co-editor with Hank Dullea of the Commission’s papers, published as Decision ’97 by the Rockefeller Institute (1997). Benjamin is also co-editor with Peter Galie and Christopher Bopst of the forthcoming volume New York’s Broken Constitution: The Governance Crisis and the Path to Renewed Greatness (SUNY Press, 2016).

Both Galie, professor emeritus of political science at Canisius College, and Bopst, chief legal and financial officer of Sam-Son Logistics, Inc., join Benjamin on the panel. Rounding out the group of experts will be Richard Brodsky, senior fellow at Demos and NYU Wagner, and Henry M. Greenberg, shareholder with the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP and current chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on the New York State Constitution.

The Constitutional Convention Media Boot Camp takes place Dec. 7 from 10 a.m. to noon at the New York State Bar Association in Albany, N.Y.

Through the support of the global technology leader, Cisco, remote viewing is possible at this link. The broadcast will be live at 9:45 a.m. ET on Monday. Questions may be addressed to the panelists later in the session at media@nysba.org. Due to space and webcast limitations, the “live” Boot Camp is intended for journalists only. For future reference, the webcast will also be posted on the Rockefeller Institute website.

This event is sponsored by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government of SUNY, the Government Law Center of Albany Law School, the League of Women Voters of NYS, and the Siena Research Institute, working with the New York State Bar Association and the New York News Publishers Association.