As part of Grand Valley State University’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration, the third annual Teach-In will take place on Jan. 21.

This event is sponsored by the university academic senate and the student senate.

This years’ Teach-In is titled “Power, Privilege, and Difficult Dialogues.” This topic was chosen carefully after thorough planning, in order to fully involve the GVSU community.

Students, faculty and staff come together each year to organize the Teach-In. Student senators work on subcommittees next to the university academic senate to best represent the students’ voice during the planning process.

“(We) select a number of proposals that were submitted by collaborative efforts between students, faculty, staff and community partners,” said Maddie Cleghorn, student senate president. “This way, Teach-In becomes a reflection of what is important to the Grand Valley community and is facilitated by diverse groups that have a variety of life experiences and perspectives to offer.”

The goal of this years’ Teach-In theme is to address topics related to inequality and systems of oppression, as well as social justice and liberation.

“The fact that the Teach-in is becoming a tradition and growing each year demonstrates that social justice is a priority at Grand Valley,” said Karen Gipson, chair of the university academic senate. “This is a grassroots effort of mutual education for Grand Valley students, faculty and staff.”

The 2016 Teach-In has undergone changes from its previous occurrences in 2014 and 2015, most notably the timing of its occurrence.

“The big change this year is that we’re holding the event during MLK Commemoration Week,” Gipson said. “This change was intentional to build awareness early in the semester and also in order to emphasize the social justice component of the event by including more community members.”

The Teach-In will be held in concurrent 90-minute sessions on both the Allendale and Pew campuses in the Kirkhof and DeVos centers. The day-long event will occur from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. The sessions will be led by undergraduate and graduate students, community members, staff and faculty.

For session descriptions and more information, visit the Teach-In website at www.gvsu.edu/teach-in.