Caring for Ourselves and Our Community - Processing and Responding

The verdict is in from the Chauvin trial. Guilty as charged. We acknowledge that the news may affect people in different ways. Some feel relief, some feel anger that it took “this much trauma” to get a guilty verdict. Others have said that they feel like they are on a roller coaster, and they just need to “take a break for a while.” In whichever way you are processing, please continue to take care of yourselves. We acknowledge the triggers, the pain, the trauma around the Chauvin Trial, the continuing struggles – throughout the pandemic, the continuing hurt in communities, concern for the need to combat historical racism and white supremacist actions against many groups of people, and the mourning for lost lives on a list that is much, much too long.

DEI and other offices across campus hope that the resources shared here will help with processing whatever you may be feeling during this time. We’ve shared some letters and along with some upcoming sessions to let you know that you are not experiencing your feelings in isolation. We are a community.

The Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Renetta Tull
shares her thoughts and emotion with UC Davis about the meaning of today’s guilty verdict.
“Please take care of yourselves and take care of each other.”

VIRTUAL PROCESSING & COMMUNITY SPACES

Center for African Diaspora Student Success

Center for Chicanx and Latinx Academic Student Success

LGBTQIA Resource Center

Pablo G. Reguerín, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs

We continue to experience tragedies and manifestations of racism and violence throughout our country and these acts come one after the other—often not leaving time to process and heal. The killing of Daunte Wright and continued violence against the Asian American/Pacific Islander communities are amongst the most recent examples we are working to process, heal and create change. This is a lot, it’s not easy and we have varying needs and experiences.

I encourage and support you all in practicing self-care as an ongoing practice and thinking about how we can support ourselves and the students we serve. We can also support each other in our daily interactions by leading with compassion and empathy and allowing for time and space to tend to personal needs. I know many of you are doing this, and I remain committed to taking action and sustaining a caring community in student affairs and beyond.

COUNSELING AND ASSISTANCE

Academic and Staff Assistance Program (ASAP)

The Academic and Staff Assistance Program provides mental health services for staff and faculty and their immediate families. This message is from the directors: “We need to look out for the people we serve and we have to be OK ourselves in order to do that. It’s been a struggle for many of us to be OK lately and that’s understandable. Fortunately, UC Davis has a commitment to our collective well-being and provides resources like ASAP to help employees who are feeling distressed. The work all of you are doing is so vitally important to the health and culture of the UC Davis. As meaningful and important as it is though, it can be difficult as well. So given the historical inequities and abuses that are being so painfully highlighted with recent events, please take the opportunity to take care of you.” –Dr. Carol Kirshnit and Dr. Rob Starkey

Student Health and Counseling Services

At Student Health and Counseling Services we affirm the UC Davis Principles of Community: We affirm the dignity inherent in all of us, and we strive to maintain a climate of equity and justice demonstrated by respect for one another. SHCS is committed to affirming and providing support for all our students who have been directly or vicariously impacted by experiences of racism, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry, aggression and violence and to challenge ourselves to advocate for equity, inclusion, and fairness.

Campus Community Book Project Mental Health Resources

Campus Community Book Project event recordings: Currently we have 15 videos available, many of which address head-on strategies for resilience and issues related to bias, racism, and structural inequities in mental health and mental health care

Campus Community Book Project mental health resources page: This project was made possible by a number of contributors, and we recently added social media resources for BIPOC communities

Campus Community Book Project mental health bibliography: For additional reading curated by a UC Davis Librarian on the topic of mental health, from non-fiction to fiction to memoir

Caring for Ourselves Events

April 27 - 4:00pm

From Dr. Kawami Evans, "Student Housing and Dining Services, African American Faculty and Staff Association, and the Center for African Diaspora Student Success are planning a processing space for Black staff to support each other in light of these recent occurrences. Please note this is a tentative date.” We will update information as available.

April 28 - 5:30pm

Racial Healing Circle
The Office for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is creating a safe space for self-reflection to promote racial equity and healing. This Circle will focus on anti-Asian/Asian-American racism.

May 19, 2021 - 6:00pm

Racial Healing Circle
The Office for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is creating a safe space for self-reflection to promote racial equity and healing.

May 26, 2021 - 6:00pm

Racial Healing Circle
We are creating a safe space for self-reflection to promote racial equity and healing. This session will be offered in celebration of Asian American Heritage Month.

Past Events

April 21 - 3:30pm

UC Davis School of Law, Marjorie Florestal, "The Healing Potential of Stories to Combat Racial Trauma"
Professor Florestal will be presenting on the healing potential of stories to combat racial trauma.

Please also see our anti-racism syllabus for future and past events.

"Too Much"

April 14, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Daunte Wright. We will say his name.

And we will mourn the fact that we live in a nation where we can’t have the possibility of processing just one trauma at a time. A Black man is shot and killed by police at a routine traffic stop, while we brace ourselves for defense arguments in a court case about another former police officer who killed another Black man. These things are happening at the same time that voting rights are threatened across the country, and at the same time that we are carrying the heavy weights of loss of family and friends, loss of livelihood, and loss of love and community during this pandemic.

It’s all so much.

It feels like a raindrop in a vast ocean to say, “We support you. Please be aware of resources if you need them.” But that is what we can offer, in this moment. In larger moments, also please know that our campus is working on changing how policing happens, and how resources are allocated for public safety at UC Davis. Please know that our UC Davis DEIB work continues.

Below is the linked message from Chancellor May, if you haven’t seen it already. And all campus leaders are sharing the following resources with their teams.

Please reach out and be in communication if you need to. Personally, I’m thankful for our community. And I’m thankful for our UE leadership team, who I know share these words with me and are also available for support.

Yours,

Cynthia Carter Ching
Interim Vice Provost and Dean – Undergraduate Education
Professor of Learning and Mind Sciences, School of Education

Please also see the March 29, 2021 message from Interim Vice Provost and Dean Cynthia Carter Ching and Helen Schurke Frasier, Assistant Vice Provost and Accreditation Liaison Officer.

The Killing of Daunte Wright

April 14, 2021

To the UC Davis Graduate Education Community:

Over the past year, we have been constantly reminded of racial injustice in the U.S. We feel outraged, frustrated, and sickened over the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and other instances of violence against people of color. Sunday's fatal shooting in Brooklyn Center, MN of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, in addition to the reporting on the trial of Derek Chauvin, have brought anxiety and fear flooding back to our community.

I want to reiterate that Graduate Studies is committed to protecting and supporting all our students' and scholars' well-being, and we proudly stand in solidarity with them. We demand justice when crimes have been committed and will continue to engage in and lead meaningful efforts to dismantle racism and other forms of hate.

Any member of our community in need of services or support can obtain them through any of these options:

Counseling: Student Health and Counseling Services provides students mental health services, advocacy, outreach, and consultation to promote psychological well-being and academic success. The Academic and Staff Assistance Program offers confidential, cost-free assessment, intervention, consultation, and referral services to all UC Davis and UC Davis Health faculty, staff, and immediate families.

Anti-Racism Resources: The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has compiled a website with anti-racism resources to support our community as we continue to find ways to build and strengthen our diverse culture at UC Davis. Graduate Studies is also hosting our inaugural Graduate Anti-Racism Symposium on May 6, 2021, which will highlight best practices in anti-racist approaches to graduate education.

We also encourage you to reach out to one another, check in, listen and be supportive because we do not have to experience the current situation in isolation. Please take care of yourselves and one another. Do not hesitate to contact us for any assistance or support we can provide.

Sincerely,
Jean-Pierre Delplanque
Vice Provost and Dean, Graduate Studies