Paul Bieniek
pbb001@marietta.edu
Each Martin Luther King Jr. Day, people across the United States and the world remember the civil rights leader’s call to serve others and his tireless leadership on behalf of social justice. Many colleges and universities cancel classes for the day and hold special community service events to honor Dr. King’s legacy. However, at Marietta College, this is not the case. MC students and staff gave their thoughts on this lack of recognition.
“I think more should be done to commemorate not just MLK himself but also what he stood for: equality and eliminating poverty,” Alex Boggs, a sophomore political science major, said. “But if we took the day off from classes I doubt many students would consider it as a day to appreciate MLK instead of just a day off from work.”
“I wish we would do more to celebrate MLK Jr.,” said Kiera Hambrick, MC’s Academic Support Coordinator. “If we are going to be in class, we should incorporate more about MLK into the curriculum.”
Freshman biology major Cody Alderman and junior broadcasting major Brittany Waugaman both said that as a private college, there is no need for the school to cancel class. However, Waugaman added that there should be more acknowledgement of MLK by the college considering he spoke here in 1967.
Interim Provost Dr. Mark Miller said the faculty council, which sets the academic calendar, has been discussing the possibility of cancelling classes on MLK Day but so far has not decided to take this step. The main reason, he said, is because the school must meet a minimum number of days to qualify as a full semester. The faculty council chooses to use their allowed days off for Spring break.
“What we want to make clear is that having class is not saying we don’t recognize Dr. King,” he said.
On MLK Day this year, communications professor Dr. Jamie Moshin gave a speech entitled “Difference, Power & Privilege in the Wake of MLK’s Legacy” as a part of the Office of Civic Engagement’s Social Justice Speaker Series. Moshin explained why he believes cancelling class for the day is about more than what people do with an off day:
“I understand there are real-life practicalities that make taking off class difficult,” he said. “But I think it is important that we have MLK Day off because it’s not about what people do on that day; it’s about what we are saying when we do or don’t give that day off,” he said. “I think when many liberal arts colleges give this one day off a year to celebrate the advance of racial relations in the United States and we don’t do that, our silence says something.”
Political science professor Dr. Mike Tager related that he has always “thought it odd” that we don’t observe the day.
“I’m old enough to remember the resistance when the holiday was being put into effect,” he said. “I lived in North Carolina and a Senator from my state tried to filibuster the bill. If we want a way to observe it, we could have no classes and try to organize community service work like they do for Make a Difference Day.”
Sophomore mathematics major Danny Tincher opined that the practical difficulties are too numerous to have the day off.
“We get five days off every semester to ensure we get one day off each day of the week,” Tincher said. “This is to make sure labs don’t miss two days. If we were to take MLK Day off we would likely have to have the Monday of spring break in class.”
He also said that because the city of Marietta has a high level of social and economic inequality, the school should take a day to look at how to combat social inequalities at the local level instead of focusing solely on MLK’s legacy.
Dr. Janet Bland said she “thinks it would be nice” if we took MLK day off.
“It would also be nice to do something positive for the community instead of just sleep in,” said Bland, an English professor. “I think that was the intention of what the MLK celebration would be. It would be very meaningful.”
