The President’s Oversight Committee on Diversity and Inclusion has planned a number of activities on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to both celebrate the diversity that currently exists on our campus and to reflect on how Notre Dame might become even more welcoming and inclusive.
Classes will be canceled and administrative units, where feasible, will either close or remain open with reduced staffing for a two-hour period on January 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
I hope you will use this occasion to reflect on the values that are so central both to King’s legacy and to Notre Dame’s mission. Our ongoing dialogue about what it means to be the kind of community we strive to be at Notre Dame and the ways that we, individually and collectively, can be a force for good in the world, is critical.” Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., President
The activities include:
- A candlelit Prayer Service and March at midnight as our day of celebration and remembrance dawns, beginning at the Word of Life mural at the Hesburgh Library and ending at the Grotto. Following the March, the dining halls will offer breakfast
- A luncheon and program for students, faculty, and staff at the Joyce Center, which will bring together about 3,000 people
- For those not attending the Joyce Center luncheon, the campus dining halls will welcome any member of the Notre Dame community—students, faculty, or staff—with a Notre Dame ID, so that the day’s conversations might continue
- A Celebration Mass to be offered in the Basilica at 5:15 p.m., featuring the Voices of Faith Gospel Choir