By Jen WiecznerThe Daily Northwestern

In his office a few days ago, Burgwell Howard seemed calm – even jovial – but said his exterior composure was deceptive.

“I’m the classic example of a duck swimming on water,” said Howard, chairman of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day planning committee and assistant to the vice president for student affairs. “Looking very calm on the surface, but underneath, he’s paddling like hell.”

Today’s events have been on Howard’s mind ever since University President Henry Bienen announced last April that classes would be canceled for the first time.

“There is a lot riding on this,” Howard said.

A full day off from classes to honor King has been a priority for Associated Student Government and other student groups for years. Now that their efforts to petition the administration have succeeded, those who plan the day are hoping to prove the change was meaningful.

“If we don’t see a lot of student participation, the administration will look at it as students just taking an extra day off from classes, and there’s a chance they would return to just having a few hours off,” said ASG Academic Vice President Jordan Fox.

Fox campaigned for her ASG position on a platform supporting a full day off from classes, and like Howard, she has been working to make the day significant.

“It’s my life,” said Fox, a Communication senior.

For the past seven years, NU has suspended classes for three hours to commemorate King.

Keynote speakers, such as King’s daughter Yolanda King and Kweisi Mfume, former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had also asked NU administration to expand their programming beyond a three-hour break from classes.

Now that administrators have followed through, planners for today’s events are urging students to take advantage of the programming.

“We need students to come, we need students to participate and we need students to engage in the program so it can be viewed as a successful event,” Howard said.

He said his biggest concern is funding, because money for future MLK Day programming depends on the decisions of ASG and the Student Activities Finance Board.

“If you ask for this amount of money and it doesn’t go well, that gets factored in,” he said. “If students don’t turn out, student money won’t go to it, and it won’t be contracted (for the future).”

William Banis, vice president for student affairs, said while he worried some students would see the class cancelations as a three-day weekend, the day-long celebration of the holiday is not in danger.

“I don’t have a sense that if this first year isn’t a raging success that we’re going to have a quick reaction and revert back to just a two-hour program,” Banis said.

Banis and Howard said students on the planning committee are probably the most worried about event attendance.

“If anything, students involved in the planning are more concerned how students will respond than administrators,” Howard said. “Students have been advocating for it for almost a decade.”

“I think students will probably create their own sort of peer pressure – we’re not pressuring students,” Banis said.

Banis projected that today would be “at least a 12- or 13-hour workday” for him and his colleagues, who plan to participate in the programming.

“If it goes well, I think it shows that the student body isn’t as apathetic as it is sometimes thought to be,” Fox said. “It’s important that we stand by what we say and celebrate the life of a great man. Not just an African-American man, but a great American.”

Reach Jen Wieczner at [email protected].

Today’s Events

8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Norris CenterThrough the 5th annual Eva Jefferson Civil Rights Mentoring Program, Northwestern Evanston area students will meet and discuss civil rights issues past and present.

12 – 1:30 p.m. Pick-Staiger Concert HallClarence Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist from the Chicago Tribune, will give a keynote speech.

2 – 3:30 p.m. Foster-Walker, Bobb, Elder and Shepard residencesCommunity Conversations – Discussions will be held to discuss race relations at NU.

2 p.m. Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave. Children’s book author Glennette Tilley Turner will speak about the Underground Railroad and share personal experiences with Martin Luther King Jr.

11 – 11:40 a.m. and3:30 – 4:10 p.m.Struble Theater, Theater and Interpretation CenterNU and Evanston’s Havel Middle School will perform “It’s All Up to Us: Our Story of the Civil Rights Movement,” using dance, music, archived video and interviews toexplore the history and future of racism and prejudice in the U.S.

4 – 5 p.m.Norris Campus social.7 – 8 p.m.Alice Millar ChapelAlpha Phi Alpha Candlelight Vigil: Keynote address by Harry Lennix, Communication ’86, actor and member of the Northwestern University Advisory Council.

7 p.m.Allison Hall Lounge Rami Nashashibi, co-founder of Inner-city Muslim Network, will talk about the importance of community, charity and action within the Muslim community.