Tag: Celebration

  • Indiana University Cancels MLK Celebration Dinner

    Indiana University Cancels MLK Celebration Dinner

    The Black Student Union held an annual dinner, first convened in 1969, honoring Martin Luther King Jr., that has been canceled this year.

    Indiana University in Indianapolis canceled a dinner in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. hosted annually in January by the Black Student Union, Mirror Indy reported. This year’s would have been the 57th consecutive annual MLK dinner, which was first convened in 1969.

    Officials in the Division of Student Affairs told the Black Student Union the event was canceled at the end of the fall semester, citing “budget constraints,” according to a letter the Black Student Union executive council posted on Instagram.

    “For months prior, we had been diligently seeking guidance and confirmation on whether the dinner would be approved, funded and supported,” the executive council wrote. “This is not just about a dinner. This is about the erosion of Black traditions under vague justifications. This is about institutional decisions being made without Black voices at the table.”

    In a letter to campus Tuesday, IU Indianapolis chancellor Latha Ramchand said, “The MLK Dinner is not going away—rather we are in a moment of transition,” and described a new task force that will “help us reimagine our affinity dinners and related events.” The task force will complete its work by April 10, she said.

    In their response letter to the Division of Student Affairs, the Black Student Union’s executive council questioned whether the current political climate may have influenced administrators’ decision to cancel the dinner. The university in May closed its diversity, equity and inclusion office, which included the Multicultural Center and the LGBTQ+ Center; student organizations within the office were transferred to the Office of Student Involvement. A student with the Queer Student Union told Mirror Indy that the Harvey Milk Dinner, typically held in October, was also canceled this academic year. 



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  • Reflections from the Higher Education for Good Book Release Celebration – Teaching in Higher Ed

    Reflections from the Higher Education for Good Book Release Celebration – Teaching in Higher Ed

    What a way to start my week!

    November 20, 2023, I attended an online launch celebration event for a magnificent project. The book Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures brought together 71 authors around the globe to create 27 chapters, as well as multiple pieces of artwork and poetry. Editors Laura Czerniewicz and Catherine Cronin shared their reflections of writing the book and invited chapter authors, and Larry Onokpite, the book’s editor, to celebrate the release and opportunities for collaboration. In total, the work represents contributions from 29 countries from six continents. Laura Czerniewicz was invited to talk about the book by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), where she describes the values of inclusion woven throughout this project.

    Higher Ed for Good Aims

    At Monday’s book launch, Laura shared how the authors aimed to write about the tenants that were directed toward the greater aims of the book. Catherine described the call for authors to engage in this project, such that the resulting collection would help people:

    • Acknowledge despair
    • Engage in resistance
    • Imagine alternative futures and…
    • Foster hope and courage

    Laura stressed the way articulating what we stand for and not simply what we are against is essential in facilitating systemic change. Quoting Ruha Benjamin, Laura described ways to courageously imagine the future:

    Only by shifting our imagination, can we begin to think of a world that is more egalitarian, less extractive, and more habitable for everyone not just a small elite.

    It was wonderful to see the community who showed up to help celebrate this magnificent accomplishment. Toward the end of the conversations, someone asked about what might be next for this movement. Frances Bell responded by joking that she wasn’t sure she was necessarily going to answer the question, as she is prone to do. Instead, she described her use of ‘a slow ontology,’ a phrase which quickly resonated with me, even thought I didn’t know exactly what it meant.

    In some brief searching, I discovered a bit more about slow ontology. My novice understanding is that slow ontology asks the question of what lives might look like, were we to live them slowly and resist the socialization of speed as productivity and self-worth. Ulmer offers a look at a slow ontology for writing, while Mol uses slowness to analyze archeological artifacts. One piece I absolutely want to revisit is Mark Carrigan’s Beyond fast and slow: temporal ontology in critical higher education scholarship. 

    Next Steps

    I’ll have the honor, soon, of interviewing Laura and Catherine for the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. I’m ~30% through Higher Education for Good and am glad I don’t have to rush through the reading too quickly. I mentioned as a few of us remained online together after the book release celebration that reading Higher Education for Good and Dave Cormier’s forthcoming Learning in a Time of Abundance has been an interesting juxtaposition. Rissa Sorensen-Unruh described a similar serendipity of reading Belonging, by Geoffrey Cohen at the same time as Rebecca Pope-Ruark’s Unraveling Faculty Burnout. After skimming the book description of Belonging, I instantly bought it… adding it to the quite-long digital to-read stack. I suppose that while I struggle with slowing down, that challenge doesn’t apply when it comes to my reading practice.

    Resources:

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