January 15, 2007: Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
February 1 through February 28, 2007: Black History Month.
September 15, 2007 to October 15, 2007: Hispanic Heritage Month.

At Anderson University, diversity means more than just what one day’s or one month’s worth of convocations and formal discussions can inspire. Diversity is part of AU’s mission to reach beyond ourselves to dedicate our lives to something bigger than the status quo. Dr. Martin Luther King gave us the direction we needed when he famously said that “a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Diversity at AU means we seek to see justice fulfilled in our daily relationships with one another, in full view of our different cultural identities. The student body is blessed with American students of many different ethnic backgrounds and 87 international students representing 41 different countries. The opportunity to journey toward a culture that embraces and celebrates cultural diversity is an immense blessing not to be taken lightly.

While regular classes continued on during Martin Luther King Day, the city of Anderson commemorated the life of King with a gathering downtown which many students and faculty attended. The next day at chapel, the remembrance continued with Dr. Laura Dungy-Poythress’s message to students about four lessons she had learned about facing Goliath-sized obstacles in life. She spoke to the everyday struggles that seem insurmountable—one of which, for all students, is racial tension. She encouraged students to persevere as King had against the fears and difficulties of the struggle. Later the next week, students gathered to watch and discuss “In Remembrance of Martin,” a video about the life of the Civil Rights leader; the dialogue helped them voice their feelings about the hope for justice and reconciliation.

D. Wesley Poythress, Director of the Multi-Cultural Student Services, leads and organizes many of the events for the celebration of MLK Day and Black History Month. However, his vision for the University is much broader than just the events planned. “Anybody’s history, particularly people of color’s history, cannot be relegated to a month. There are things that are more [important], such as trying to change the ethos, the concept, the lens through which people look at history and what history means,” Poythress said. The native southerner who grew up in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama is also a member of the group that organizes the city-wide remembrance of King’s legacy. Poythress believes that education is the key way in which people can become more aware of vast and diverse world just outside theirs.

Poythress’ hope is to expand the celebration of different cultures beyond the events during Black History Month into a year-round awareness, a complete paradigm shift. He has organized several video presentations with follow-up dialogues in the following months focusing on not just African-American heritage, but also the legacies of the Chinese, Latino, and others who have made an impact on the larger culture. He also plans to continue his campus-wide emails that pose questions about different people and events important to marginalized cultures. His mission is to educate others and to help AU and the Anderson community grow in diversity awareness.

But the movement toward a more understanding and accepting campus ethos doesn’t begin or end with the faculty leaders. The students themselves are leaders in this area, and they are the ultimate deciders of what the campus culture will be. Organizations like the Multicultural Student Association and the International Student Association help connect the students to different cultures and bring about the kind of awareness that breeds awakening. And the student-led D.R.E.A.M. campaign stands as a sign that students are actively pursuing a new lifestyle that will “include, embrace, and accept” people who have been on the other side of the racial, cultural, or ethnic fence for far too long. The student group was born out of a forum held in 2006 about race relations on campus and has now grown to over thirty students. The group encourages all students to sign a commitment pact to dedicate themselves to searching out diversity and stepping out of their comfort zones to find what kinds of stories they’ve been missing in friends they have yet to meet.

Through all the many different official events like the dialogue sessions and chapel speeches, the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. grows in our minds. But each day, the AU campus works out their salvation in fear and trembling, knowing that for King’s legacy to grow in our hearts, we must be brave enough to take small steps toward understanding others and remembering that ours is just one story in the bigger history of our diverse world.