Although the birthday of Martin Luther King fell before classes had started back up for the spring semester here at IC, the life and message of this great man did not go unnoticed. During what has been dubbed MLK Week, IC students and faculty participate in various activities and conversations surrounding social justice during the last week in January, when students return to campus. This tradition began in 2008 when President Emerita Peggy Williams declared Dr. King’s birthday a “Day on, not off.” This statement was made in reaction to what Williams felt was a disrespect for the day in honor of Dr. King—rather than taking the day to reflect and serve their community, IC students (and indeed, students nationwide) were using the day to sleep in. And thus MLK Week was born, to help educate students about contemporary social injustices while encouraging community involvement.
Each year, the MLK planning committee picks a quote from the writings of Dr. King to serve as the theme for MLK Week. This year’s theme was “redefining greatness”, taken from a speech in which Dr. King argued that in order to be one great, one need not change the world, but rather change oneself into a servant for the world. This speech was a call to citizens to incite change at the most basic level—themselves. Especially in a college-world dominated by the incessant need to do more, be more, and achieve more, Dr. King’s words resonate:
“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Throughout the week, students and faculty facilitated discussion around the relevance of service in today’s community and on the IC campus. Events included a presentation by the first-year MLK scholars detailing the journey of their Civil Rights Tour, a keynote address by Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick, a “Type and Tweet” event incorporating social media and social awareness, and a closing concert by the Brownskin band. The MLK scholars chose to “redefine greatness” by giving voice to many unsung heroes of the Civil Rights movement, as well as telling their own stories of racial injustice. The Mayor’s address in particular highlighted how service has changed not only his life experience and ability to reach his goals but also how serving the Ithaca community has allowed him to bring about positive change. On Saturday, students put the preaching into practice and took to the streets of Ithaca to volunteer through IC’s Service Saturdays program. The MLK Week Service Saturday was the most successful one to date, with all volunteer slots full and requests to join pouring in up until Friday night.
All said and done, IC MLK Week was a great way to start the semester. It serves as inspiration to make 2012 a year of service and change, and the IC students came out in full force to support this message.