Oct. 17, 2022
Dear Students:
I know many of us have been devastated by recent world events. We are witnesses to tragedies unfolding worldwide with such regularity that we risk becoming accustomed to the consistency of senseless violence and loss of life. All who are paying attention to the news of such events are left having to manage feelings that can range from grief to anger to hopelessness – and I don’t want any member of our campus community to have to do this alone.
We all must ask ourselves what we can do to ensure that violence of any kind has no place on our campus. A place to begin is to understand and take to heart what Richard Hazler, Professor of Counselor Education and Coordinator of the Elementary School Counseling program at Penn State University, wrote more than 20 years ago:
Violence does not begin with gang warfare, rape, murder, and suicide. That is when society becomes afraid of violence. Instead it begins as put downs, insults, threats, harassment, and bullying, where inappropriate lessons of how to deal with others are learned and where frustration, resentment, and anger build. (Violence Continuum, ¶6)
Are there small, everyday places in our lives at CSUCI where put downs, insults, threats, harassment, and bullying can occur? Are any of us learning inappropriate lessons about how to deal with others? I have seen frustration, resentment, and anger build, even recently, and I know the health effects those emotional states, if prolonged, can cause.
Let’s allow ourselves to build community, instead, through cultivating our curiosities about each other and connecting.
On Wednesday, Oct. 19, we will be holding a monthly PACT for Peace gathering at the Central Mall. Please bring your lunch, a blanket, or a chair, and join us at the Central Mall. Let this be a space for community building, for learning more about one another, and for reminding ourselves that we are not alone.
There are discussion questions posted on digital screens around campus and below:
What do you want to be known for?
What is a topic you care deeply about? Why?
I challenge you to ask at least two other people these discussion questions this Wednesday afternoon. We’ll be holding a PACT for Peace gathering each month and will post new discussion questions for cultivating curiosity and connection each time.
This event also perfectly coincides with the #IAmCI event in honor of National Transfer Student Week hosted by the Multicultural Dream Center and the Center for Multicultural Engagement, offering an opportunity for students to reflect on their intersecting identities and what it means to be a CSUCI student. Students at this event will also be able to meet Myisha Arellano to offer feedback on an upcoming mural that she will be designing to highlight the diversity of our campus community.
I hope you join us on Wednesday for these events at the Central Mall and enjoy our beautiful campus while spending some time outside with our campus community.
Sincerely,
Richard Yao, Ph.D.
President
Reference:
Hazler, R. (2000). When victims turn aggressors: Factors in the development of deadly school violence. Professional School Counseling, 4: 105-113.
CSUCI PACT for Peace
- PACT is:
- Planning opportunities to connect, to grieve, to heal, and to overcome gun violence
- Acting strategically and in solidarity to promote peace, belonging, and mental health
- Coalescing with community partners to amplify and leverage peace-building efforts
- Transforming schools and society, ensuring that every human being is valued and safe
- PACT for Peace is not:
- Utilizing CSUCI’s name to take a political stance.
- No CSU employee, office, program, school/college, division, or campus is legally allowed to take a stance or make an action promoting a political agenda as a CSU employee, office, program, etc. (e.g., utilizing CSU email, letterhead, employee time, or other resources) that the CSU has not endorsed.
- As a public institution we must be vigilant in adhering to CSUCI’s humanistic, pro-DEI, anti-violence stance and leave the shaping of political and legislative outcomes to individuals and organizations who are free to do that work.