Martin Luther King (MLK) Day honors Martin Luther King Jr., who fought to end segregation as a leader of the civil rights movement, on the third Monday of January. Because it’s a federal holiday, all federal employees, public schools and most businesses and universities are closed in observance of this holiday. That is, all except for Carleton, which continues to hold classes and go about the day as normal. 

I should add that Carleton doesn’t simply neglect this important holiday, different departments and offices do hold events throughout the day that offer distinct programming. The Office of Intercultural Life (OIL) had a gallery walk that featured the contributions of Dr. King and fellow civil rights activists and included a dinner program afterward. The Office of the Chaplain held a service the night before MLK Day to honor Dr. King’s life and emphasize his attitudes toward social justice.  Similarly, the Black Student Alliance (BSA) organized activities including readings, music and candle lighting to honor his legacy.  

While these events were well-executed and deeply thought-provoking, they weren’t promoted adequately. There wasn’t an email that singularly highlighted these events or created an easy-to-follow timetable, but instead, multiple email chains. BSA announced its programming via Instagram, and OIL’s events could only be found at the bottom of a student life newsletter and campus announcements chain. Students don’t thoroughly read through (or, in some cases, even glance at) campus announcements or newsletter emails. Placing MLK Day events in these email chains amongst 30 other announcements isn’t a good avenue of promotion. Even if someone read all of their emails and wanted to go to these events, adding an hour or two of programming to an already busy day is impossible for most students. Additionally, because the class schedule hasn’t changed, these events might conflict with commitments such as clubs, academic events and work. 

Thus, it’s reasonable to ask the question: should Carleton take this day off like its fellow institutions and let students fully participate in this remembrance? An optimistic person would say, “Yes!” More programming could be offered because students have no commitments, and the programming would see higher levels of attendance. They would be able to engage in these activities without worrying about homework or classes. Additionally, this downtime would encourage students to properly reflect and sit in the moment rather than hurrying from activity to activity. 

Pessimists would say, “No.” This day off would encourage students to spend Saturday and Sunday night partying and hanging out with friends, and then when Monday rolls around, they’d spend the whole day in bed recovering from their weekend. Additionally, students would procrastinate their work over the weekend, so Monday would effectively become a catch-up day to spend in the Libe. Either way, MLK Day would become an incentive for a lazy day instead of one spent in remembrance and community. 

The administration would say that taking MLK Day off is impossible; the 10-week schedule is already really compressed, and taking another day off, especially another Monday, would hinder learning and be unfair to the faculty. 

So, if having classes doesn’t allow students to adequately celebrate this holiday, and taking the day off doesn’t promote this holiday, what should Carleton do? I think an augmented schedule would be the best strategy. If we switched Monday and Friday schedules, common time on Monday could be devoted to an MLK Day speaker. Additionally, classes could be slightly shorter, 40 minutes as opposed to the usual hour, so that professors could still cover the material they had planned to but finish the day a couple of hours earlier. This would allow the majority of the afternoon to be devoted to various MLK Day activities, not interfering with prior commitments. I think that more than just BSA and OIL should hold events, other clubs should be encouraged to do so as well. Sports clubs could hold tournaments that students have to pay to enter and donate this money to civil rights organizations. Film clubs could watch Selma and host a discussion of the movie afterward. Students interested in history could take a trip to the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery. While Carleton isn’t necessarily doing anything wrong with their celebration of MLK Day, I think it could do more to promote engagement in more diverse ways.