Dear colleagues,

I want to write a message to you all, now that it has been two weeks since the all campus message on 10/10. The conflict in and around Israel and Gaza continues to escalate. As teachers, scholars, and humans we have different levels of proximities to it, both professionally and personally. 

With the escalation of the violence, there is renewed attention to the current and historical contexts of the conflict, ranging from increased student curiosity and general population interest. However, globally and in the US this has also led to misinformation, hate action and speech in forms of Antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate, anti-immigration bias, xenophobia, and orientalist narratives. 

In the face of the challenges, I want to reaffirm, and invite you to reaffirm our important commitment to the pursuit of learning, knowledge, and understanding. One of the most impactful ways we contribute is through the engaged discussions we have with students in and out of classrooms. In some classes, the course content leads to discussion on the war and violence. In other courses, the focus will remain on the normal class content. 

There is no one "right" way to engage and respond, and I am grateful for the numerous ways you are engaged in supporting each other and advancing our core mission of learning: Some of you are doing convergence courses and zooming in colleagues from outside of CC, some of you have offered to facilitate student group discussions and helped student navigate the complex landscape of activism and protests, some of you have opened your office and home to create much-needed community for students, faculty, and staff colleagues. 

In doing this work, we advance the core value and responsibilities of academic freedom that must be central in a community of learning. Academic freedom is described in the CC Bylaws (p.13), Faculty Handbook (also p.13), and campus policy on freedom of expression. If you encounter online or other harassment due to your work or your identity, please let us know so we can support. If students miss class, your normal absence policy should be able to address their needs.

However, no statement or policy can provide the answers to all situations in which we will find ourselves. There will be other forms of protests, activism, teach-ins and walk-outs, slogans and signs, speakers of different positions, national and global events that layer on additional conflicts. The context in the moment—not a legal reading of any policy or statement—will help us channel strongly held opinions and perspectives to discussions that lead to learning and understanding. 

As we navigate this individually as scholars and teachers, and collectively as faculty and staff at CC, I invite us to be empathetic as we exercise our academic freedom, and to think about how we can create the capacity for sustained dialogue in the midst of dissension and divergence.

Please let me know if there are ways to support you and any program/department action/initiative.

If you have resources you would like to share with colleagues, please send them to me and our team will compile and share back.

Sincerely,

Dr. Emily Chan

Dean of the Faculty