Provost John Strohbehn has given the stamp of approval to a proposal that designates Martin Luther King Day as an official University academic holiday, canceling all classes on the day in honor of the national holiday. The change will take effect during the 1998-99 academic year.
Marion Shepard, chair of the University scheduling committee, which also approved the proposal, said the only difficulty involved with implementing the observation next year would be publicizing the schedule change-the University's Bulletin had already published next year's academic calender before the change had been approved.
Nevertheless, Shepard said, the University has decided to implement the approval next year. Strohbehn could not be reached for comment.
As a result, spring semester, which historically began on a Thursday, will begin one day earlier in order to accommodate the observation of Martin Luther King Day. Shepard explained that those classes that meet only on Mondays will meet on the first day of the semester. This way, he continued, professors will not lose class time for observation of the holiday, which is celebrated annually on the third Monday of January.
The proposal to make the federal holiday an academic one was initially made by Trinity junior and Amir Rashid-Farokhi, Duke Student Government legislator and vice president for facilities and athletics-elect, who brought it to the table in the form of a resolution at the Feb. 4 DSG meeting. Rashid-Farokhi said he is pleased with the administration's response and "deft handling of the issue."
"I feel MLK Day offers an opportunity to improve the intellectual climate on campus through something that has immediate and direct pertinence to our socioeconomic atmosphere, both at Duke and in the real world," he said. "MLK Day holds an incredible potential for engaging, productive thought and we should use it as a day on rather than a day off.
"While this may be incredibly idealistic," he continued, "I hope the student body uses the opportunity to work with the administration in designing events and forums to create a one-of-a-kind celebration. MLK Day at Duke should be both a reflective day and a day for sorting out relevant contemporary issues."
Currently, administrators and University employees are excused from their jobs on Martin Luther King Day, but classes proceed as usual for students and professors. Until the recent approval of the holiday, the University remained one of a limited number of institutions in the country that did not formally recognize the holiday by canceling classes.
All public and most private universities, including Harvard, Princeton and Stanford Universities, observe the holiday.
Trinity junior Tobie Wilder, president of the Black Student Alliance, wrote in a February column in The Chronicle that a day without classes "should not be viewed as an excuse for long weekends or Sunday-night parties, but as a day of reflection and active commemoration of King's Legacy."
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