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<span style="margin:0px;font-size:11pt">Dear CPSY Community:</span></p>
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<span style="margin:0px;font-size:11pt">Yesterday was an extremely distressing day and unprecedented in US history. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Along with your faculty, I am proud of you as professionals and future advocates in a world that needs
your Counseling Psychology skills and expertise more than ever. You are the future professionals who will engage communities, work in schools and with families, and will care for clients in ways that promote a healthy society and that promote engagement in
difficult and important conversations. The fact that </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">the rioters in DC today were treated quite differently than the Black Lives Matter protestors in DC and other cities just a few months ago speaks to the systematic racism
embedded in our society. As a community of scholars, we stand together to support each other and those who are more vulnerable.</span></p>
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<span style="margin:0px;font-size:11pt">The events of today are an unsettling way to start winter term, particularly in our remote Zoom classroom environment and while physically distancing from those outside of the household “pod.” If you are finding it difficult
to concentrate, you are not alone. Please reach out to me, your advisor, or other faculty or fellow students in the program if it would be helpful in these stressful times. If you are feeling able to support others, please reach out to your fellow students/peers
to see if they need anything. We are a community in this program and department and are here for each other!</span></p>
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<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">I hope that seditionists and rioters are prosecuted fully and face the consequences of their actions. And I hope that</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;"> peace and justice prevail,
as one cannot exist without the other.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;"> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;">With care and respect,</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px;">Benedict</span></p>
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<div class="PlainText">__________________________________________________________<br>
Benedict T. McWhirter, Ph.D.<br>
Professor, Counseling Psychology and Prevention Science<br>
Program Director, Counseling Psychology Program<br>
College of Education<br>
University of Oregon<br>
Eugene, OR 97403-5251<br>
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benmcw@uoregon.edu<br>
541-346-2410<br>
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