The undergraduate faculty voted on Monday to begin observing the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday starting in 2016.

This vote to cancel class on the holiday follows demands made by a group of Washington and Lee Law School students last spring.

The group, who calls themselves The Committee, submitted a list of demands to the university. These demands included the removal of the confederate flags from Lee Chapel and the canceling of undergraduate classes on MLK Day. The law school already observes this holiday.

The Journalism and Mass Communications department voted unanimously in support of canceling classes.

“I don’t think that what other colleges do, or what other federal holidays we do or do not acknowledge, should be dispositive,” Department Head Brian Richardson posted in an online discussion group for faculty members across the University. “Who we were, who we are, and who we want to be, make this holiday different, and comparisons moot.”

Classes will still be held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2015, according to an email from Provost Daniel Wubah.

Keep checking up with The Ring-tum Phi for more developments on this story.