Date:December 2, 2010
To:Faculty of the College
From:Sara Varhus, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Subject:Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration, January 17, 2011
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day falls on January 17, 2011. Because this is a class day, faculty are encouraged to incorporate into classes content that reflects upon ideas, issues or activities of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Please feel free to approach Gaynelle Wethers for ideas and/or assistance.
As we have done in previous years, NazarethCollege will provide transportation for students who wish to participate in Rochester’s City Memorial Service at 9:00 a.m. Students should be excused from class in order to participate in the City Memorial Service. Students are expected to notify faculty, in advance, of their intended absence from class for this reason.
If you will not be holding class that day so that you yourself can participate in the Rochester’s City Memorial Service, please let the Registrar’s Office know this and they will arrange to have a notice placed on your classroom door redirecting your students to the Forum. An educational video will be shown at regularly scheduled class times.
A Memorial Service arranged by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planning Committee will be held in the Linehan Chapel, and will occur between 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Undergraduate and graduate classes will be suspended during that period. All faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to attend the Memorial Service.
In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the College has planned a special program for Monday afternoon. All undergraduate classes will be dismissed in time for students and faculty to attend the 4:30 p.m. lecture by Dr. Keith Miller. It is very important that any graduate student who wishes to attend this lecture be allowed to do so without penalty. Therefore, I request that you announce the lecture in your class on Monday, and release from class any graduate student who wishes to attend the lecture. It is also important that you provide any student who attends the lecture with comprehensive material of what they missed during class time.
Dr. Keith Miller is a Professor of English at ArizonaStateUniversity. In his research, Dr. Miller mainly focuses on the rhetoric and songs of the civil rights movement. He is the author of Voice of Deliverance: the Language of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Its Sources, which was favorably reviewed in the Washington Post and is widely cited. His essays have appeared in many scholarly collections and leading journals. His essay, “Second Isaiah Lands in Washington, D.C.: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ as Biblical Narrative and Biblical Hermeneutic” was awarded Best Essay of the Year in Rhetoric Review in 2007.
Dr. Miller received his Ph.D. from TexasChristianUniversity.