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Many students, faculty and staff at Â鶹ÊÓƵ have expressed concern for the people of Haiti following a massive earthquake on Tuesday that killed tens of thousands and devastated much of the Caribbean nation. A current student and a 2009 alum on the ground in Haiti have made contact with their families in the United States, while another two current students and other alumni have started hearing from their own relatives still in the country.

Dozens of Â鶹ÊÓƵ students turned out Monday morning for a “Freedom Journey” community march, followed by service activities at Â鶹ÊÓƵ First Baptist Church and Kopper Top Life Learning Center, which served as reminders of how civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr. shaped a movement a generation ago to advance equality for all people.

On the eve of a national holiday to honor the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., members of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ community gathered Sunday evening for an intimate candlelight ceremony in which guests shared stories of how the slain civil rights leader's message touches them today.

Diversity isn't about the intention, "it's about the result," and as author and diversity speaker Lenora Billings-Harris shared Wednesday in Â鶹ÊÓƵ's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Program, today's students must use their knowledge and courage to continue building on the social progress made by previous generations of civil rights activists.

Author and diversity consultant Lenora Billings-Harris will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday at Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s annual MLK Commemorative Program, which honors the life of the slain civil rights leader. The program, free and an open to the public, begins at noon in Whitley Auditorium.

A series of events to commemorate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will take place next week at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, from a special College Coffee to a candlelight ceremony and a “Day of Service” in conjunction with Â鶹ÊÓƵ First Baptist Church. The theme of this year's events is “His Past. Your Future. One Dream.”

Â鶹ÊÓƵ students, faculty and staff visited Carousel Cinemas on Oct. 27 for the premiere of DEEP Impact, a diversity education tool that includes a student-produced film created by the Multicultural Center at Â鶹ÊÓƵ.

Â鶹ÊÓƵ's Multicultural Center will debut a new diversity education program on October 27 in a community event at Carousel Cinemas, where a student-produced film will be screened to foster conversations about topics such as race and sexual orientation while addressing biases and stereotypes.