Unity Week, a week-long celebration, organized by the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement to raise awareness about societal issues, did not happen this year for the first time in 14 years.
Unity Week, which usually takes place during the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was canceled by SLCE to allow student organizations to take charge of its planning in the future.
Terry Morrow, director of the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement, said, “We would love to see students step up and say ‘We want to have this on campus and are willing to lead it,’” said Morrow.
Morrow said that students not stepping up to plan the events could be interpreted as lack of interest. She said that having students take charge, would give them an opportunity to exert leadership.
“We’re focusing more on leadership development,” said Morrow.
The cancellation of the event meant the cancellation of a Hunger Banquet, which raised awareness about world hunger and interfaith dialogs, which focused on similarities between religions.
Another canceled event was the Wall of Hate, which consisted of a brick wall on which students wrote insulting words. The wall was destroyed at the end of the week to symbolize the intolerance of
hateful words.
Elizabeth Mortazavi, sopho-more biology major, said she liked the Wall of Hate and would like to see it again.
“I had never seen anything like that,” she said.
However, three of the events that were usually featured during Unity Week still took place and two of them were run by student organizations. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, which was hosted by SLCE, the Clothesline project hosted by the American Association of University Women, and Take Back the Night hosted by Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and Delta Phi Epsilon, were held last week.
During the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service students volunteered 105 hours in four different projects. One of which was at Harbor Beach Nursing Home.
“It’s exciting because students are leading (the projects),” said Morrow.
