The vice chairwoman of the NAACP’s national board of directors called on students Friday night to challenge Northwestern’s administration to cancel all classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The current policy is to cancel classes today between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m..

With University President Henry Bienen in the audience, Roslyn McCallister Brock said NU is the only school in the Big Ten that holds classes on the holiday honoring the civil rights leader, but said students have the power to change that.

“Young people, it’s in your hands,” said the vice chairwoman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Brock was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Candlelight Vigil at Alice Millar Chapel. It was organized by NU’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically black fraternity.

Bienen said the day’s observances were important for NU.

“It’s an event which gives us time to think about what MLK meant,” he said.

But Brock said canceling classes on the holiday would better demonstrate commitment.

“Come together, stand together and find your voice on the issues that affect America,” she said. “The challenge we face in our time is to make this nation what it ought to be: ‘One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'”

Brock ended by telling an allegory about elephants migrating across a river. Because the smaller elephants were afraid to cross the river, the bigger elephants that had reached the other side went back into the water to form a bridge across which the smaller elephants could walk.

She then called for some “big elephants” in the audience to stand up and acknowledge their responsibility in society.

The candlelight vigil followed Brock’s remarks. As McCormick sophomore Sylvester- Jaron Ogletree read aloud the words of King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, some audience members sang “We Shall Overcome.”

McCormick senior Warren Latham , Alpha Phi Alpha’s president, said he agreed Martin Luther King Jr. Day warrants a full-day observance. He added that he had previously suggested that to the MLK Day Planning Committee, on which he served.

McCormick junior Craig Carter , the fraternity’s treasurer, echoed Latham’s sentiment.

“I believe it should be a day off, but students should do it properly,” he said. “I think the administration’s fear is that students would use it to do other things like catch up on homework rather than use it in remembrance.”

Alan Cubbage , vice president for university relations, said NU had considered making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a university holiday but concluded it would be counter-productive..

“The feeling was that if there was a true university holiday in which all the staff and faculty were gone, classes were canceled and no event was held to honor Dr. King, the university would not be adequately recognizing the legacy of Dr. King,” Cubbage said.

He said NU shouldn’t be compared to other Big Ten schools, which as public institutions are required to cancel classes for the holiday.

But many private peer institutions cancel classes for the holiday, including the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford and Duke universities.

Weinberg junior Michael Collins , the coordinator of For Members Only, the black student alliance, said that NU is behind on this trend.

“I don’t think the university can say that it is a bastion of cultural diversity and tolerance when it does not even respect MLK Day,” Collins said. “I do think it’s important that students are aware of the significance of MLK day and are not just wanting a day off without respecting the reason for the day off. In that way, there is mutual responsibility between administration and students to recognize and respect the contributions of MLK.”

Reach Ketul Patel at [email protected].