A large crowd from Gannon participated in the citywide memorial march for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Culture Meets Compassion:
University Celebrates Diversity
• A group of faculty, staff and students braved chilly
January weather to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day by joining the citywide memorial march, held Jan. 18. Prior to the march, Gannon University’s Erie Chamber Orchestra hosted its annual Martin Luther King Jr. tribute performance, while special liturgies were celebrated at the University’s Mary, Seat of Wisdom Chapel. In addition, Parris J. Baker, Ph.D. ’92, assistant professor and director of Gannon’s social work program, facilitated an interactive training and simulation titled “Blessed are the Peacemakers: The Puzzling Pieces of Peacemaking.”
• In February, the University’s criminal justice program
Women’s History Month with several events in March. The University’s monthly ecumenical worship service, Gathering in Praise, incorporated prayers and guest speakers by, for and about women. The Gannon University Support Staff Association (GUSSA) recognized female faculty, staff and administrators with a poster collage displayed in Nash Library. Freshman Sonia Additionally, the Activities Gorakshakar enjoys her Programming Board sponsored first International Night. motivational speaker Stacy Nadeau. The former model for Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” visited campus March 10 to discuss body image issues.
• Gannon celebrated its diverse cultural heritage
on March 27 with the University’s 22nd annual International Night. More than 500 attendees enjoyed food and performances representative of nearly 27 countries, including Greece, Japan, Libya and the Netherlands.
newsnotes
and Activities Programming Board celebrated Black History Month by sponsoring a panel discussion titled, “Pennsylvania Alternatives to the Death Penalty.” The event featured Rev. Adrienne Young, founder of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Hope, an organization for people who grieve the loss of friends or family who are victims of violent death, and Harold Wilson, the 122nd person to be exonerated and freed from death row. The University hosted its third annual showing of a documentary film in honor of Black History Month, By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, which included a discussion led by André Horton, director of the Erie NAACP and former chair of Obama’s presidential campaign office in Erie. A second film, For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots, facilitated by Timothy M. Downs, Ph.D., dean of the College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, and Lt. Col. David P. Goodman ’04, professor of military science, was shown as well.
• Gannon honored
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