In honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Binghamton University’s Multicultural Resource Center (MRC) is holding a week of activities designed to foster a culture of inclusivity on campus as well as explore issues of human rights.

An LGBTQ Center new student welcome reception, performances of speeches and letters from Dr. King and other events will fill the nine-day program spanning to Sunday. The inaugural celebration is hosted by the MRC along with several departments and student organizations such as the Black Student Union (BSU), the Latin American Student Union and the Asian Student Union, as well as the Intercultural Welcome Committee, which plans programs during each welcome period of the academic year.

The program, titled “Continuing the Dream: Inaugural MLK, Jr. Week of Welcome Celebration,” marks the first official BU-sponsored Dr. King week of events, which has also been expanded to serve as a spring semester welcome. Indy Li, the community engagement coordinator for the Center for Civic Engagement, described the program as a dual effort to welcome students back from break, as well as build off the legacy of Dr. King and encourage an environment of equality.

“The week will be filled with a variety of programs and activities designed to build a culture of inclusivity on our campus, conveniently timed with the return of students to campus and before the academic stresses of classes picks up,” Li wrote in an email. “It inspires our campus community to think about how we can make our campus, our local community and our country more equitable for everyone – now and in the future.”

On Wednesday, Jan. 18, renditions of speeches and letters from Dr. King that display his philosophies and motivations during the fight for civil rights will be read, and a “Passion to Action: Continuing the Dream Beyond Inauguration 2017” panel will take place on Friday, Jan. 20, allowing attendees to have a dialogue with a panel of experts to focus on how individuals can empower students through alliances, especially following the presidential inauguration.

On Sunday the “New Student Welcome Brunch with President Stenger!” will take place in which new students can receive their “Class of” T-shirt, meet Stenger and then cheer on the men’s basketball team in its first game of the spring semester.

Tanyah Barnes, the assistant director of the MRC, explained that the program received University backing as a result of the early spring start as well as collective interest from both students and faculty to begin new multicultural initiatives.

“[It] is both an opportunity to welcome new students into a more connected community, share in the reflection of history and stories that are so often hidden while also challenging ourselves to look at and create new, and meaningful ways, to impact the world,” Barnes wrote in an email. “We have been working to increase and enhance campus initiatives regarding cultural awareness, diversity and inclusion over the past few years; but especially as students, faculty and staff have shared feedback and collaborated to bring on new initiatives.”

Kayla Anderson, the president of BSU and a senior majoring in integrated neuroscience, said that the program was important because it allows students to engage in pressing issues.

“The Martin Luther King Jr. Week of Welcome Celebration is extremely important at any institution but especially at a pre-dominantly white institution such as Binghamton University because it allows students and faculty to see how far we have progressed as a nation as well as how much work still needs to be done,” Anderson wrote in an email. “From the week long of events, we hope that students walk, march, and celebrate in solidarity the legacy left behind by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”