Friday, Oct 2, 2015
Speakers, exhibits and gatherings shed light on diversity, civil rights and justice
Rider University’s Unity Days, a series of events that aims to bring students, faculty, staff, and the community together to celebrate the University’s diversity, will be held in October. The theme of this year's events is "Civil Rights: Then & Now."
“While divisiveness continues to mark events on a national and global scale, we have organized several events at Rider that are meant to display the unity among our diverse campus community,” says Pamela Pruitt, the director of Rider’s Office of Multicultural Affairs. “I encourage students, faculty, staff, alumni and the greater community to come out and participate in Unity Days to gain a sense of hopefulness and understanding from both a historical and contemporary perspective.”
On Oct. 5, the Flip Schulke Photography Exhibit will open to the public with a ribbon cutting, followed by a panel discussion you won't want to miss. Copies of the original works by one of the most acclaimed photographers of the Civil Rights Movement, including photographs of the sixties, along with those of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his family, will be on display. These photographs can be seen through Nov. 8 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily in the Seminar Room of the Student Recreation Center on the Lawrenceville campus. A discussion on civil rights issues, with a distinguished panel and refreshments, will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. This thought-provoking conversation will illuminate how civil rights have been viewed through history and are understood today, from “We Shall Overcome” to #BlackLivesMatter.
On Oct. 8, a Unity Day March for Peace will begin in the Bart Luedeke Center and end on the campus mall, featuring the joyous singing of Unashamed Gospel Choir, praise dancing, and the Westminster Jubilee Singers, and concluding with a march around the campus mall, ending at Moore Library with the lighting of the Unity candles by groups of Rider students.
Unity Days events will culminate on Oct. 14 with a lecture on Just Mercy by author Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. The book was selected for Rider’s Shared Read Program, which invites incoming freshmen and the entire Rider community to read one book as a way to introduce and affirm the University’s learner-centered mission. Through his stories about injustices in the criminal justice system, Stevenson explores whether “justice for all” truly applies to everyone, regardless of race, age or economic status. A book signing will follow.
For more information about Unity Days, please contact: