There is a correction in this article. It did not say that Northwestern faculty and staff are alloted three paid "personal floating holidays" in addition to vacation time. The Daily regrets this error.
Northwestern will cancel all classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day next year to encourage students to take advantage of community service activities, university officials announced today.
For the past seven years, NU has suspended class for three hours to allow students to attend keynote speeches by figures such as King's daughter Yolanda King and Kweisi Mfume, former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Canceling classes for the whole day will open up local community service opportunities the university hopes to organize, said University President Henry Bienen. To plan these activities, NU administrators will consult the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Planning Committee on the Evanston campus and the Dream Committee on the Chicago campus.
Bienen said NU's previous Martin Luther King Jr. Day programming was done well but was overshadowed by so many students' requests for a full day off. The committees that scheduled speakers and events were not given enough credit because of "people bitching," said Alan Cubbage, vice president of university relations.
On multiple occasions, Associated Student Government members and guest speakers have requested that the university cancel classes.
In January, the vice chairwoman of the NAACP, Roslyn McCallister Brock, gave a speech calling on students to challenge NU's policy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Recently elected ASG Academic Vice President Jordan Fox's campaign platform included lobbying the administration to cancel classes. Now, she said ASG's task is to "help start generating and making programs possible, because there are so many opportunities."
Canceling classes will allow many more students to take part in the Eva Jefferson Civil Rights Program, in which student mentors spend the day with middle schoolers, said Fox, a Communication junior.
As of this year, NU was the only school in the Big Ten to hold classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But Cubbage told The Daily in January that NU should not be compared to public institutions that are required to close for the holiday. Many private schools canceled class this year, including Stanford and the University of Chicago.
Administrators have voiced concern that students would use a day with no classes as a vacation, not an opportunity to honor King.
"If all the students take off and go to Vail, (Colo.), we'll know we need to reevaluate," Cubbage said.
Bienen said NU hoped to cancel classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day for the next few years, but would view the new policy as a test period.
"We'll see what happens," Bienen said. "This won't be written in stone."
Although classes will be canceled, Martin Luther King Jr. Day will not be considered an official university holiday, according to a press release. Faculty and staff members will be required to use one of their three "personal floating holidays" or a vacation day if they choose to take time off.
Reach Margaret Matray at m-matray@northwestern.edu and Diana Samuels at dzsamuels@northwestern.edu.
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