Good morning. On behalf of Ball State University, it is my honor to welcome you to campus to kick off our city's celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and Unity Week at Ball State. For the last four years, we have hosted this event, and as always, we are pleased to be an integral part of this celebration. I would like to thank our co-sponsoring organizations this morning, Ball State University, Burkhart Outdoor Advertising, the City of Muncie, the Collective Coalition of Concerned Clergy, First Merchants Bank, Ivy Tech State College, M.I.T.S., Muncie Black Expo, Muncie Community Schools, and the United Way.

Mayor Dan Canan is also with us today. We all certainly appreciate your commitment to the very issues Dr. King upheld. Thank you, Mayor Canan.

Let me also thank today's speakers and performers, to the Collective Coalition of Concerned Clergy, and to Pastor Bryant Crumes, who has led the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Day committee for the last five years. You and your committee never cease to amaze me in your efforts to produce a program that honorably and passionately pays proper tribute to the memory of Dr. King.

As Unity Week kicks off at Ball State, and I invite everyone to take part in some of the activities that will be going on each day through Sunday. One particular event worth highlighting is our keynote speaker, Reverend Dr. Floyd H. Flake.

Dr. Flake is the president of Ohio's Wilberforce University—the oldest private African-American university in the nation and a former U.S. Congressman. He is the pastor of the 23,000-member strong Allen African Methodist Episcopal Cathedral in Queens, New York, and has been preaching since he was 15 years old. So, you can imagine what a dynamic, inspiring message he will deliver.

Dr. Flake's address will focus on Unity Week's theme of "Community, Cooperation, Change," and will take place Thursday, January 18, at 7 p.m. in Emens Auditorium. His presentation will be paired with the renowned Wilberforce University Choir, which will no doubt make a wonderful, memorable evening. Please join me in hearing Dr. Flake this Thursday.

Derick Virgil, Ball State's director of our Office of Multicultural Affairs, noted that Dr. Flake in many ways reminds him of Martin Luther King Jr. because he is a strong national figure who plays a dual role of being extremely active in the social and academic communities. Dr. Flake, he said, is amazing in terms of understanding not only the human condition but also the ways the community can advance.

As we all know Dr. King understood that for a community to advance, people must understand that problems do not solve themselves. It takes a plan of action to make things happen. It also takes people who are willing to lead, willing to adopt a drum major instinct. Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, recently wrote about Dr. King's reference to people serving as drum majors.

Morial urged us to step up in front of the parade rather than lag behind it. He wanted us to become stronger, more visible leaders, saying, "We must be drum leaders in the suites and on the streets."

At Ball State, we have taken this message to heart. We are committed to be leaders in redefining education—improving Indiana, one community at a time—to make a college education more accessible, and to challenge students with new ways of learning.

For example, working cooperatively with Indianapolis Public Schools, Ball State has pioneered the Urban Semester program, which has been honored nationally for its support of diversity. This voluntary program allows students to spend an entire semester working in an urban school environment. For many students, this experience is life-changing, and provides urban school districts with much-needed energetic, innovative teachers.

Around Indiana, Ball State continues to serve as the state's only university to authorize charter schools. Since 2001, the university has authorized 21 public charter schools, which give students and parents more choices in public education. In Gary, the Thea Bowman Leadership Academy, one of eight schools Ball State has authorized in this area, is establishing a tradition of success. Just in the last month, Thea Bowman was one of the schools included in a study, which indicated improvements in ISTEP scores in both language arts and mathematics in charter schools across Indiana.

And we can't forget to tend to our own community. Our nationally ranked architecture and landscape architecture programs regularly assign students to projects that benefit Muncie. One shining example is the groups of students led by Olon Dotson and Les Smith who designed and built a park for the Millennium Place Development, on Muncie's south side. The students dedicated hundreds of hours, and the final result is a beautiful area where parents can gather in one of the three shelters and where children can run around on the playground. And the good news is that more landscape architecture students will continue working there this semester.

These immersive learning experiences are changing the landscape of higher education. And we are dedicated to being a drum major to find even more ways to connect our students to communities and companies in Muncie as well as Indiana. Through a $20 million grant from Lilly Endowment, we opened four immersive learning institutes to eventually make these innovative learning experiences available to all of our students.

Would Dr. King feel that we're doing our part as drum majors? We hope so. Dr. King certainly set the bar high and more than played his part as drum major. In 1957, fifty years ago, he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The purpose of the organization was to provide leadership for the burgeoning civil rights movement. For the next 11 years, he traveled more than six million miles, delivered more than 2,500 speeches, wrote five books and numerous articles, led many protests, won the Nobel Peace Prize, and became the world-acclaimed leader whom we celebrate and continue to be inspired by today.

Think about what Dr. King accomplished in just those 11 years.  11 years. Many people would be happy to accomplish a mere fraction of that in their entire lives.

With so many accomplished people from our community here in this very room this morning, with so many resources at our disposal, let's see what collaborations we can create in our lifetime to continue to make the changes necessary to help further the ideals that Dr. King lived and died for.

Let's see what we can do to be drum majors for the future.