Jan. 22, 2023
Dear Students and Colleagues,
My heart feels a bit heavier each time that I sit down to write a message to members of our campus community who are impacted, however directly or indirectly, by another incident of gun violence. With every new incident like this, I confess to wondering if sending a message to our campus community is helpful. But every time, I write—knowing that it is my way of refusing to be numb, of insisting on bearing witness, and of knowing that human beings can evolve into a better way of being and of dealing with frustrations, grievances, and anger.
In Saturday night’s mass shooting at Star Dance Studio in Monterey Park, 60 miles east of Camarillo, at least 10 people lost their lives and another 10 were injured. This massacre occurred while Monterey Park—a city with one of the largest AAPI communities in the nation, at nearly 66% of about 61,000 residents—was in the midst of a weekend celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year.
I feel the familiar weight, but differently of course, on this Chinese New Year Day.
Words of condolence and solidarity are not enough. Our campus is continuing with our PACT for Peace initiative, and I hope you will participate—we held regular gatherings through Summer 2022 and into the Fall, and we will continue to do so this Spring. I fully understand that it may be easy to become numb to violence—if that has not happened for some already. At some point, we may feel the need to just hunker down and take care of ourselves and our families. I sincerely hope we can resist that need. Children and young people in this world need us, and we need each other.
In solidarity,
Rich Yao, Ph.D.
President