COLUMN: An appropriate celebration

From Mark Fiore's, "The Right Stuff," Fall '99 From Mark Fiore's, "The Right Stuff," Fall '99Around this time of the year, some unusual flyers appear throughout campus. The mysterious yellow and pink pieces of paper, posted anonymously, carry provocative messages. Another states: "The following Ivy League institutions observe the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday: Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia." It then asks, "Where is Penn?" The answer is that even in this era of political correctness and liberal ideology, the University has held steadfast to its position of refusing to cancel classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Grudgingly or not, students from all races and walks of life have their regularly scheduled classes today, the day commemorating the civil rights leader. And rightly so. Some students, presumably including those who posted the flyers around campus, consider the classes an assault on their right to commemorate King, who himself once took some graduate courses at Penn. Year after year, the very pages of this newspaper are filled with letters and articles demanding that the University release students from their courses on MLK Day. Just last year, Rasool Berry, then the president of the Black Student League, accused Penn officials of not allowing students to fully celebrate the holiday: "Students shouldn't have to make that sacrifice to take the time to contemplate what Dr. King really means." And in 1995, the Graduate Student Association Committee urged students to "cut for King." Berry and others, however, are mistaken. The University requires no sacrifice. On the contrary, Penn goes out of its way to encourage students to commemorate King. University policy requires that professors allow students to take the holiday off without punishment -- just as they are permitted to do for any other national holiday not recognized by the University. Professors also may not give tests or require assignments to be turned in on the holiday. To emphasize the policy, Penn's leadership triumvirate -- University President Judith Rodin, Provost-designate Robert Barchi and Executive Vice President John Fry -- released a letter to the University community encouraging celebration. The letter, published in the January 12 issue of the Almanac, states, "Release time has been authorized for staff to attend Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorative programs on January 18?. Likewise, faculty are encouraged to be flexible regarding class attendance to allow students the opportunity to participate fully in January 18 programming." Because of such leniency, students should feel no reluctance to bail out of their classes and join in the commemoration of King each and every year. The flyers posted around campus, however, seem to suggest that the University allows for no commemoration of MLK Day. Again, such an understanding is egregiously flawed. Not only does Penn hold many events on MLK Day, the celebration continues for the next six weeks. Today's events include a breakfast and discussion, an afternoon commemoration and a symposium on "How the University of Pennsylvania Can Help Keep Dr. King's Dream Alive Here at Penn and in the Community-at-Large." The day concludes with a program featuring City Council member Angel Ortiz. On Thursday, the Interfaith Council will hold a Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Program and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Center will play host to Kiyoshi Kuromiya, an activist who will talk about his personal experiences with King and King's impact on gay Japanese-American AIDS activists. And next Tuesday features the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, delivering the University MLK commemoration keynote address. Such an extensive listing of events certainly indicates that the University is not neglecting the King holiday simply because classes will be in session. Indeed, the University also continues normal operations on President's Day, Veterans Day, Good Friday and all of the Jewish holidays -- all of which have just as much significance to this University and this nation as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. "But other universities close down on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and other holidays," some activists respond. Yes, but many don't as well. While some institutions -- such as Dartmouth College -- cancel classes for MLK Day, many more are still on winter break at the time and still others operate as usual. The University of Chicago and Northwestern University, where classes started January 4, make no cancellations for MLK Day. And Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore colleges held their first day of spring classes on MLK Day. Given the circumstances, the answer to the flyer's question, "Where is Penn?" seems obvious: The University will be offering many programs to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. and encourages the community to take part. Where will you be?