Southwestern University will host a community dinner Jan. 20 in celebration of Martin Luther King Day.

The dinner will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballrooms and will feature a keynote speech by Southwestern graduate and trustee Larry Haynes.Haynes graduated from Southwestern in 1972 with a degree in economics and accounting and earned a master of public accountancy degree from The University of Texas at Austin. He spent 32 years with Ernst Young, and was a partner in the firm for 21 of those years.

Since retiring from Ernst & Young in 2010, Haynes has worked as an executive relationship consultant at Smith Frank Partners, LLC, an asset planning, risk management and wealth strategies firm, and also as a senior adviser with Athens Partners, a professional services consulting firm.

He has been a member of the Southwestern University Board of Trustees since 1998 and also serves as a trustee of the Texas Methodist Foundation. Haynes received Southwestern’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003.

The dinner is free for Southwestern students and $5 for faculty, staff and members of the community. For more information, or to make reservations, call 512-863-1342 or write tjohnson@southwestern.edu.

The dinner is just one of several events that will be held at Southwestern in January to commemorate King. Other events that have been scheduled are as follows:

Wednesday, Jan. 15 – The documentary “The Children’s March” will be shown at 6 p.m. in Olin 105. A candlelight vigil will be held in the Chapel immediately following the documentary.

Thursday, Jan. 16 – MLK chapel service at 11:30 a.m.

Members of the Southwestern community also are invited to participate in MLK Day activities that are taking place in Georgetown and Williamson County Jan. 20. These activities include an MLK community march in Georgetown and a Day of Service sponsored by the United Way of Williamson County. A list of projects the United Way is organizing in Georgetown, Leander, Round Rock and Taylor can be found here.