Rose-Hulman News
Dr. Jakubowski greets Mary Howard Hamilton, guest speaker for the 2009 Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation.
While Rose-Hulman is normally a forward-looking, progressive school, once in a while staff and students take the time to look back and reflect on historical events. This past Monday, the campus did just that.
Rose-Hulman observed a convocation schedule for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, taking an hour and a half to celebrate one of the foremost leaders of the civil rights movement.
“I thought [the convocation] was excellent,” said Arthur Western, Vice President for Academic Affairs. “It was very informative and the attendance was good. I was quite pleased.”
Mary Howard-Hamilton, an Associate Professor for Higher Education and Student Affairs at ISU, delivered this year’s keynote speech. Students were largely impressed by the content delivered during the keynote.
“I thought [the speech] was really good,” commented Albert Mui, junior chemical engineer, said. “I really enjoyed the speaker; I thought she really spoke in terms that engineers could understand.”
In contrast to Western’s outlook, however, some students were disappointed with the turnout at Howard-Hamilton’s keynote.
“I was a little disappointed that not many people were there,” Mui said. “I know that in at least two of my classes I was the only one who attended.”
Western coordinated the convocation for Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the recommendation of the Diversity Council. The Council organizes and recommends similar programs throughout the year to recognize diversity in the student body and throughout the world.
The convocation schedule has been used to celebrate special events at Rose-Hulman for over twenty years, but the Martin Luther King Jr. Day convocation was just added last year, according to Western.
While the addition may have gone well, the institute plans to limit convocation schedules to once per quarter. So that when a special schedule is called, students take notice.
“It’s very infrequent that speakers come into the school to deliver inspiration or a message,” Mui said. “I think it’s a really untapped resource that not enough people take advantage of.”