[Uosenate] Upcoming Senate Anti-Racism Events

[Senate Pres Elliot Berkman]

Good morning, Senators,

I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of two upcoming abolitionist and anti-racism events that we’re putting on exclusively for senators:

1. Our discussion of the attached Bettina Love chapter will take place in the March 10 senate meeting. Please complete the brief survey by the end of the day tomorrow to help the steering committee* prepare.
2. Please register for our trauma-informed leadership series by March 10. The registration form is here. Spike and I participated in a pilot of the workshop last month and highly recommend it for all senators. The Senate’s workshop is one of several happening in parallel and led by the same team for groups of leaders (VPs, Deans, Dept Heads) around campus. More details about our workshop are below.


- Ell

Elliot Berkman
Senate President
Professor, Department of Psychology & Center for Translational Neuroscience
he/him/his

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* The Senate Anti-Racism Academy Steering Committee is Senator Kristy Bryant-Berg (chair), Senators Butler and Cronce, myself and VP Gildea, Executive Coordinator Betina Lynn, and Charlotte Moats-Gallagher from DEI.

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Memo regarding Senate Workshop Series of Trauma-Informed Leadership

As you’re no doubt aware, the U.S. is present reckoning with the many ways that white supremacy is deeply embedded into its structures and institutions. The implications of ongoing racism and other forms of oppression are also evident on our campus. You will recall that last June the Senate passed a Resolution Against Racism and Systemic Oppression, which committed us to a set of actions intended to help dismantle systems that perpetuate racial inequities on our campus.

In Spring and early Summer 2020, DEI and the Office of the Provost convened small groups of faculty of color along with some graduate and undergraduate students, who described the tragic impact of individual, interpersonal, and structural racism on our campus. They followed up these conversations with a broader campus survey, and the results showed how deeply affected by the compounding crises our academic community was (and remains).

One of the many actions we and other leaders on campus promised to provide—and which we have heard many white faculty, staff, and students call for—is ongoing education coupled with accountability mechanisms for leadership to be more effective in recognizing and intervening in the acute racial and other stressors affecting members of our campus community, particularly Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi and caregivers of all backgrounds. It is clear that some of the systemic issues that we need to aggressively address are structural elements of the university that presuppose a particular set of backgrounds and expectations.

A core issue is the lack of empathy - particularly among instructors - about how past and ongoing experiences of individuals can influence their engagement in academic life and sense of belonging at the university. This is a perpetual theme that arises again and again, so it is well past time to listen and act on these concerns.

To that end, we are pleased to announce a six-session virtual workshop series tailored to our campus and piloted with a small group of UO department heads, deans and associate deans, and vice provosts. It’s called “Trauma-informed Leadership for Institutional Transformation” with an emphasis on responding to racial trauma and white supremacy. The sessions will be held across Winter and Spring terms, and led by Portland-based licensed clinical social workers Wayne Scott and Tori Lopez.

Trauma-informed leadership integrates an understanding of the neurobiology of collective trauma as it relates to evolved features of he human nervous system, as well as mindfulness practices. It is clear that many aspects of life over the last year have set the stage for these impacts for many individuals across our entire community, so these leadership skills can be an important factor in intervening in and buffering against psychological injury and enhancing resilience.

The purpose of this series is to raise awareness of the deleterious effects of collective and individual trauma, provide an opportunity to reflect on how these concerns affect our campus community, understand the ways in which we are complicit in white supremacy, and offer some tools and practices resonant with trauma-informed leadership and teaching. This series will lead us deeply into anti-oppression work– specifically, anti-racism work– with an eye toward intersectionality. It will serve as a foundation for understanding a wider array of oppressions based on gender, nationality, sexuality, indigeneity, language, nationality, and ability, among others. The workshops will be followed up by the use of peer mentoring communities, allowing us to apply what we’ve learned to our campus context.

Our hope and goal is that you as members of the Senate will attend at minimum the facilitated sessions (#1, #3, and #5), and approach the material with a beginner’s mind. Each session will take place on Fridays, 1-3pm or 1-2 pm. The dates are:

March 19, 1-3:00pm      Session 1: How Toxic Stress Affects the Nervous System
April 2, 1-2:00pm          Session 2: Debriefing Session
April 16, 1-3:00pm        Session 3: Trauma-informed, Anti-racist Leadership
April 23, 1-2:00pm        Session 4: Debriefing Session
May 7, 1-3:00pm           Session 5: Expanding Resilience in the Classroom
May 21, 1-2:00pm         Session 6:  Debriefing Session and Commencement

To register, please complete this brief Qualtrics form. Please try to find time in your schedules so you can attend. These sessions will not be recorded.

The workshop and communities of practice will bolster our collective leadership and help us to create inclusive environments in which all of our faculty, staff, and students can thrive.

We thank you for taking the steps to listen, learn, and strengthen your own personal leadership practice. We are confident that our collective commitment will help us along the path toward a better, more resilient and antiracist University of Oregon for all of our faculty, staff, and students alike.

Sincerely,
Elliot Berkman, President, UO Senate
Yvette Alex-Assensoh, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion, and Professor of Political Science
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