Letter from the Chair

Hi all,

A lot of us imagine this year as a finish line. Some of us may have already crossed it last month, and some of us might be in the last leg of the race. Nevertheless, congratulations on making it through the academic year. There is no doubt in our minds that this year has been exceptionally challenging, and I hope you are able to get rest and rejuvenate for what is to come.

The Commission for Social Justice Education has in the past released statements after large instances of injustice towards marginalized groups around the world. Some of these instances have really hit too close to home, and we struggled to react in a timely manner. We apologize for not bringing visibility to issues like the COVID crisis in India, increased violence in the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the discovery of the unmarked graves of 215 indigenous children at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada. Each news article felt like another hole in a sinking ship that is the fight for justice.

In our recent Open Forum meetings, we have envisioned ways to encourage our colleagues in higher education to see that we all have a stake in every event of injustice. As social justice educators, we are situated to bring others in and to use learning as a means of building empathy and resilience. I am grateful for past participants in our open forums as they have inspired two opportunities to deliberately use education for liberation:

A reading circle focused on issues of racial justice, decolonization, and abolition in higher education
A series of workshops focused on the questions: what does the abolition movement ask of higher education? And what can higher education professionals learn from abolition activists?

As we work to identify peers who can shepherd us through these efforts, we ask for our members to contribute to this work through sharing these opportunities, inviting your colleagues to our open forums and working groups, or donating to our commission. We hope to use our budget to provide honorariums for our coordinators and workshop presenters because we know how often the individuals are often not compensated for the additional advocacy efforts they lead. Your donations will go towards these efforts and more.

If you are interested in giving visit: https://www.giveffect.com/campaigns/9297-commission-for-social-justice-education

In community,

Janine Silvis, M.Ed*

Assistant Director for Residential Education
Cowell College & Stevenson College, UC Santa Cruz
Chair, Commission for Social Justice Education
ACPA College Student Educators International
janine.silvis@ucsc.edu
Schedule a meeting.

*One of my goals is to be active in providing an empathetic and safe learning-living environment. One way to practice these values includes the ability to share gender pronouns. My name is Janine. My pronouns are them/they/their pronouns. What pronouns do you use?

Another way to practice these values is to acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal of indigenous peoples from this land as well as honor and respect the many diverse indigenous peoples still connected to this land. This message was written on "the traditional and unceded territory of the Uypi Tribe of the Awaswas Nation. Today these lands are represented by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band who are the descendants of the Awaswas and Mutsun Nations whose ancestors were taken to Mission Santa Cruz and Mission San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast" [Source].

CSJE Monthly Forum

Please join us for the CSJE monthly forum on June 18th, 2021 from 3pm to 4pm Eastern. We will have a number of updates, new ways to get involved, and will continue planning our educational initiatives for the year. See you then!

Agenda & Call Details

New CSJE Vice Chairs

Kirstin Kelley is the new CSJE Vice Chair for membership development and communications. Kirstin is an RD at the University of Vermont where they serve on the Honors College Committee for Equity and Inclusion. They have been involved with CSJE for the past year and look forward to learning from and with longtime members and new members alike. In their free time Kirstin enjoys rock climbing, backpacking, and soaking up the all-too-rare Vermont sun.

Drew Terhune is the new CSJE Vice Chair for eudcational opportunities and fundraising. Drew works in crisis intervention and sexual violence support services at the University of Oregon, and is also a marriage and family therapist in private practice. Drew has been involved with the commission in some capacity since 2013, and he joined the directorate in 2020. Outside of work, Drew spends his time reading, exploring the relationships between foodways, social justice, and mental health/wellbeing, and improving his skills in the kitchen.

The Commission for Social Justice Education owes a debt of gratitude to our departing vice chairs. Thank you to Terry Paape, Brooke Huynh, Sean Hembrick, and Mercedes Diaz, for your leadership of CSJE, and we are so glad that you will remain involved with the commission in other ways.

New! A CSJE Jobs Board

Have a job posting that you'd like to share with the membership of the commission? We've got a jobs board now! If you'd like to advertise a position to the CSJE membership, click the button below. We'll share the jobs board link in next month's newsletter.

Submit a Job Posting