cpsylist: Follow-up on student requests re: social justice initiatives

[Counseling Psychology]

Dear CPSY graduate students,

As the academic year comes to a close, we (as the CPHS department head and CPSY program director) wanted to follow-up regarding our response to the 5/24 open session CPSY faculty meeting addendum. First, we thank you for voicing your concerns and bringing them to the faculty for discussion. We believe that freedom of speech and open discourse are effective and important ways of conversing with both like-minded and non-like-minded people and groups alike, to further each's understanding and respect for one another, and ultimately create change. This response is fairly succinct but identifies next steps that provide settings and opportunities for in vivo conversations, to facilitate a back-and-forth exchange of ideas. Our response below corresponds with the 3 "Specific Requests and Recommendations" provided by students in the 5/24 meeting.


  1.  "Begin a dialogue among faculty about the disconnection between program values and department action."
RESPONSE: A 5-hour-long CPHS faculty academic planning meeting is scheduled for late September, where we will have some time to discuss CPSY and CPHS program values. Our weekly faculty meetings (~7 to 8 meetings/term) provide an ongoing space for discussion of program and department values and actions, and we will continue conversations around program values and actions throughout the coming year. Specifically, the full agenda for one meeting/term is dedicated to CPSY, to allow for deeper conversations regarding our program. We will continue our practice of holding at least one "open session" faculty meeting/month (i.e., a session that students can attend), and it is hoped that every CPSY-focused meeting can be "open" for the first 30 minutes to promote greater student-faculty communication. We will also continue our practice of transparency of communication via posting of faculty meeting agendas and minutes on the CPHS All Teams channel.

CPHS faculty members' administrative roles focus on ensuring that our program curriculum and academic processes (1) follow accreditation regulations and Oregon law; (2) are aligned with the university's values, including inclusive teaching, research, and service practices, (3) are aligned with current trends in terms of what prospective students are seeking from their degree/careers and what prospective employers are looking for in employees, and (4) consider student and alumni input. Our administrative roles do not cover personal actions that fall outside of these domains, and various factors that may not be immediately visible to students (e.g., Oregon law governing public employees, university policies) may constrain how we engage in advocacy across a wide range of venues and formats while acting in our administrative roles. That said, we recognize and applaud individual efforts that faculty and students engage in, especially those that enhance human wellbeing and equity. The faculty continue to uphold the values of the program, including social justice, through their extensive research, scholarship, teaching, service, and other myriad forms of engagement with underserved, underrepresented, and vulnerable populations across the state of Oregon and internationally.


  1.  "Request the department release a statement"
RESPONSE: At this time, we do not have faculty agreement on a department statement. While we plan to hold a follow-up meeting open to faculty and students in early fall term to continue the conversations begun this year on social justice initiatives, and we are optimistic about the discourse ahead, there remains the possibility that a department statement may not come out of those discussions. In the interim and ongoing, we continue to encourage faculty (and others) to express their own statements and values in venues of their choosing.


  1.  "Propose specific academic and other related readings for faculty & students"
RESPONSE: Faculty also discussed this idea, in advance of the 5/24 meeting. Following the 5/24 meeting, reading resources were compiled into a single location in the CPHS All Teams channel (as discussed in the last GradSem on 6/7). Effective immediately, we propose that any CPHS member (student, faculty, staff) could initiate a book club/reading group that would focus on one (or more) of the readings on the list. We have secured ~$500 funding to provide for the purchase of some books if there are costs* associated with this. Any group organizer(s) could select a book(s), invite others to join, and then the discussion might happen in fall term (although, groups could meet in summer if preferred by the group). This approach allows for a range of books to be selected and discussed, depending on the group organizers' preferences. Groups should be open for any member of the CPSY (or broader CPHS) community to join.

To propose initiation of a book club/reading group, CPSY members should submit a 1 paragraph proposal to cpsy at uoregon.edu<mailto:cpsy at uoregon.edu>, with the title of the book(s), rationale for book selection, anticipated timeline for group meetings (and planned progression through the book), and whether any paperback copies are requested for purchase (with the associated costs). Groups will be advertised to the various listservs. Proposals that include a request for funds will be accepted on a rolling basis (first come, first served), with funds awarded until funds are expended. We anticipate this book club funding being renewed annually.

(*Before purchasing books, CPSY will work with the UO library to try to purchase eBook copies of any books the library does not currently own, so that suggested resources might be available to the whole community on a more permanent basis.)

In addition to the above, we plan to hold a follow-up meeting open to faculty and students in early fall term, to continue the conversations begun this year on social justice initiatives.

Thank you for taking the time to read this communication.

Wishing everyone a restorative summer,

Leslie & Jess




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.uoregon.edu/pipermail/cpsylist/attachments/20240614/d5d658dd/attachment-0001.html>