August 16, 2020

Dear Faculty Member:

On behalf of the Division of Equity and Inclusion (DEI), welcome, and congratulations on your new faculty appointment at the University of Oregon! Starting a new position during a pandemic must be overwhelming, and so we very much hope that your transition to Eugene is progressing as smoothly as possible despite the challenges that abound. We certainly look forward to getting to know you and hearing more about your work, interests, and how we can support you and collaborate with you.   

New beginnings are always filled with excitement and growth, and in a hybrid on-campus / remote environment, navigating those opportunities may not be as easy as we would hope. Here are a few resources that we hope you will find useful as you plan for your first term at the UO during these extraordinary times:

• COVID-19 has laid bare various inequities related to faculty research and creative practice. Please know that the Provost and I take these concerns seriously, and have been working this summer to take steps in the many areas where our university can be supportive. To learn more, please read this joint communication from the two of us.
• DEI’s Center on Diversity and Community (CoDaC) is dedicated to the success of our faculty and graduate students, with programming such as Writing Circles and Writing Consultations, and resources available through our institutional membership in the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity.
• The tenets of Love, Authenticity, Courage, and Empathy, are universal. DEI employs the LACE framework to help our campus explicity model our values in the way that we show up as community members on our campus. For resources on how to lead with LACE in your teaching and scholarship, please visit our web page.   
• Every year, DEI hosts the African-American Workshop and Speaker Series, where we welcome to campus experts in Black history and contemporary Black issues. During this moment of national reckoning over anti-Black racism and impunity for police who murder Black men and women, the series could not be more important. Speakers this fall will include former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, president of Prairie View A&M University Ruth Simmons, president of the Social Science Research Council Alondra Nelson, and UO’s AVP for Academic Advising and award-winning young adult author, Kimberly Johnson. We encourage you to include the series as a formal learning opportunity for your students, perhaps as part of the larger class focus or an opportunity for extra credit. Please watch this page as details on dates and streaming links are made available.
• To learn more about the work of our Division generally and our university’s diversity framework – IDEAL – please visit our web site at /.

Lastly, we end this communication with a gift to you. In previous years you would have seen a new book in your faculty mailbox on campus. In order to more easily reach everyone this year, we’d like to send you an electronic copy of one of the following two books:

• Alex Soojung Pang, Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. We know the time and commitment required by careers in academia, particularly in a new work environment. For many of us, the impulse is to work nonstop, with the hope of resting once we have achieved the tenure, promotion or other levels of achievement that we seek. Park argues that deliberate rest is just as important as intentional work, as it makes our work more energetic, creative, balance and inspired.
• Joan Middendorf & Leah Shopkow, Overcoming Student Learning Bottlenecks: Decode the Critical Thinking of Your Discipline. Middendorf and Shopkow lay out a methodology to break learning bottlenecks and “decode” critical thinking implicit within various academic disciplines. “This is a book for faculty who want their students to develop disciplinary forms of reasoning, and are moreover interested in a methodology with the potential to transform and reinvigorate their teaching.”
• Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. Layla Saad’s book provides those who benefit from white privilege a structure to examine racism and white privilege on a deep, personal level. Originally written as a workbook, Me and White Supremacy includes journal prompts throughout, providing opportunities to reflect on ways to dismantle one’s own biases and create social change.

If any of these has piqued your interest, please let us know at vpinclusion@uoregon.edu before October 1 which book you would prefer to receive electronically, and at which preferred email address.

Again, our congratulations and welcome to the University of Oregon. Please do not hesitate to be in touch with us if there are ways we at DEI can be supportive. We cannot wait to meet you.

Sincerely,

Yvette Alex-Assensoh, Ph.D., J.D.
Vice President for Equity and Inclusion
Professor of Political Science
University of Oregon