Tonight: A panel on 'Women of Color in Higher Education'

In the second of two events focused on the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. during Black History Month,four women affiliated with Skidmore, Union College and the College of St. Rose, will participate in a panel on "Women of Color in Higher Education" at 7 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) in Gannett Auditorium.

Moderated by Skidmore Dean of Student Affairs W. Rochelle Calhoun, the panel will explore how the civil rights movement and the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. have influenced their educations, careers, and lives. Panelists will include Gretchel Hathaway, senior director of campus diversity and affirmative action at Union College; Lorna Shaw, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at the College of St. Rose, and Muriel Poston, dean of faculty and professor of biology at Skidmore.

They will explore the following questions:

-How are we, as individuals and/or as a nation, successfully continuing to fulfill this legacy and reach toward equality?

-How and where are we failing and how do we ameliorate this?

-Where do we have yet to go and how do we work to get there?

The MLK Planning Committee has coordinated these events with support from the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Office of Student Diversity Programs, and the President's Office.

Last Thursday, Barbara Love, professor of social justice at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, spoke about Rev. King and shared a religious perspective on the success of the civil rights movement.