Putting “Dr. King” Back in Martin Luther King Jr. Day

By: Susie Cribbs

Carnegie Mellon Celebrates King’s Life with Thoughtful Discussion and Dialogue

To most people, Martin Luther King Jr. Day creates a welcome three-day weekend that temporarily dispels January’s bleakness. Shopping malls and ski slopes jam with customers and amateur athletes enjoying their “day off.” But are those skiers and shoppers remembering King’s work and teachings? Probably not. Moguls and MasterCards don’t often bring to mind a great civil rights leader.

But Carnegie Mellon University annually puts Dr. King back into Dr. Martin Luther King Day, holding firm to the “a day on, not a day off” national theme for the holiday. Classes are held in the morning, but suspended in the afternoon and evening so students, faculty and staff can attend special programming on campus designed to encourage thoughtful dialogue on the late civil rights leader’s work.

“We do this out of deep respect for Dr. King, and we think the way we do it is especially meaningful and fitting,” said Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon. “And I think he would approve.”

Carnegie Mellon continued its “day on, not a day off” tradition on Jan. 16. President Cohon, chairman of the university’s Diversity Advisory Council (DAC), began the day’s events by discussing the university’s progress in building diversity on campus. He reported that Carnegie Mellon has one of the highest percentages of international undergraduate students among its peers. Female undergraduate enrollment is steadily increasing, and women made up 40 percent of the student body in 2005 (up from 32 percent 10 years ago). Tenure among female faculty members is showing “slow but steady” progress, and there has been a substantial increase in the number of female research faculty on campus.

Though the university showed progress in these areas, Cohon highlighted numerous areas for improvement, such as increasing the number of minorities in faculty and professional positions, and improving the representation of women in science, engineering and business. “Diversity, in all of the meanings of that word, is one of Carnegie Mellon’s strategic priorities,” Cohon wrote in the annual DAC report. “Through the efforts of the Diversity Advisory Council, and all the members of the university community, we will continue to become more diverse—and better.”

As part of his address, Cohon also presented the 2006 Barbara Lazarus Award for Culture and Climate to Associate Department Head and Modern Languages Professor Susan Polansky. Named for Barbara Lazarus, associate provost for academic affairs who died in 2003, the award is annually awarded to a faculty or staff member who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and made a demonstrable impact on improving the culture and climate in the Carnegie Mellon community.

Following the president’s address, students from Carnegie Mellon and local high schools read narratives revealing their experiences with racial difference and discrimination as part of the university’s seventh annual Martin Luther King Jr. Writing Awards ceremony. The awards, sponsored by Carnegie Mellon's Creative Writing Program, present cash prizes to local high school and Carnegie Mellon students who submit poetry or prose about how race has impacted their lives.

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