Today, January 15th, is Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s birthday. In honor of Dr. King, the Regency universities will be closed on January 19th. At NIU, where our most central and significant open space bears King’s name, it seems especially appropriate that we pause to consider the importance of this man’s life and that we rededicate ourselves to the kind of social change which King pursued.

To do that, we must do more than we have done to create an environment in which minority students and staff feel welcome and supported both on campus and in the community. We must resist an erosion of student financial aid at the federal level and reduce financial barriers to increased minority participation in higher education. We must renew our affirmative action efforts. We must confront ignorance and prejudice where we find them. We must respect and learn from the different cultural perspectives which minorities bring to campus. In short, we must recognize what King called “our inescapable network of mutuality.”

It is my hope that we can move more rapidly toward these goals than we have in the past, and I invite each of you to begin today to contribute in whatever way you can to their timely realization.

John E. LaTourette

President

NIU