By MICHAELA SPRINGER and GREGG MONTGOMERY, WISH-TV
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An annual dinner honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Indiana University Indianapolis has been canceled due to “budget constraints,” according to the event’s frustrated student organizers.
The IU Indianapolis Black Student Union announced the cancellation of the dinner in a letter on social media Wednesday.
The Dr. Martin Luther King Dinner has been a campus tradition for nearly 60 years, but the organizers say in the letter that the cancellation “was not a decision made by the Black Student Union.”
The Black Student Union wrote, “The decision was communicated to us by the Division of Student Affairs through the Office of Student Involvement (citing) ‘budget constraints’ following organizational and funding transitions.
“We received formal notice of this decision via email at the very end of the fall semester, leaving us with little to no opportunity to pivot, reimagine, or implement an alternative, large-scale celebration within the remaining academic timeline.”
According to the student union, its members had been working “diligently” through the fall to confirm funding and approval for the dinner, but “delayed communication, combined with timing of the decision, created significant barriers to (their) ability to act in the ways (they) would have wanted.”
The cancellation has left the group with feelings of frustration, confusion, and exhaustion — feelings the group says it shares with the community.
“This is not just about a dinner,” the letter said. “This is about the erosion of Black traditions under vague justifications. This is about institutional decisions being made without Black voices at the table. This is about the loss of a space that affirmed our humanity during a time when Black communities are under increasing political, social, and emotional strain.”
The student union further asked community members to help build and organize other events to help solidify their history. The letter said, “Preservation of our history will not come from institutions alone; it comes from us.”
Indiana University has not issued a statement following the letter’s posting on social media. However, an IU spokesperson who asked to remain anonymous, said in a phone call to News 8 that IU Indy began a conversation in October with the Black Student Union about the dinner.
Also, the spokesperson said, IU “shortly before the holidays” informed IU Indy cultural organizations that budget issues were forcing the university to reconsider cultural events.
IU Indy plans to announce next week, when students return to campus, that’s a “day of service” and a speaker will be on campus Jan. 19 for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the anonymous spokesperson said.
The IU School of Social Work and the DJ Center for Youth, which is funded by Community Engaged Alliance and Kara4Care, announced Thursday afternoon that it will have an event to honor King from 1:30-4 p.m. Jan. 18 on the second floor of University Hall. A news release issued Thursday afternoon said goals of the Sunday afternoon event are “to highlight our efforts to educate young people in two tenets of Dr. King’s lasting message: restorative justice and the power of the black dollar.” Speakers will be Damita Jefferson, chief programs officer at VOICES Corporation, a Black-led Indianapolis-based nonprofit designed to empower youths and families facing violence, trauma and poverty; and Robert Marshall, chief advancement officer at Flanner House Indianapolis, which describes itself as providing holistic community support that focuses on empowerment, education, housing, and food justice for low-income residents.
To read the full letter by IU Indy Black Student Union, as well as the group’s formal address to the Division of Student Affairs, click here.
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