AMES, Iowa — Each spring Iowa State marks first amendment week, with guest speakers focusing on the value of an independent media.

On central Campus, the ISU Greenlee School of Journalism and the Iowa State Daily partnered in this endeavor. The group offered a free lunch on Thursday.

“The idea from the founding fathers was in order to have a democracy and republic that govern itself you had to have informed people,” said Gary Sawyer, a Journalism Professor at Greenlee. “You only do that if you have those freedoms, so it’s important to have, you know, these freedoms and for people to exercise those freedoms.”

The event also featured a give-away of books which have been banned in Iowa.

“You know you attract people with free food, so that’s part of that sort of the attraction to get people into the tent and you talk about the first amendment a little bit,” said Sawyer. “So this is just a fun fun day and we have a great day today, so that’s a lot of fun.”

Sawyer said that even though newspapers are on decline, ISU students are still landing jobs when they graduate.

“We have a lot of students that are going to nonprofit and organizations,” said Sawyer. “People know it will maybe, the method of delivery will change, but the fact of the matter is that that you know there’s a lot of people that access journalism.”