An update on the community convening we had planned to hold this week.

Dear Oxy Community:

I write to provide an update on the community convening we had planned to hold this week. We sought the guidance of staff and faculty with expertise, as well as outside experts on trauma-informed responses, to plan these next steps. After those conversations, the plan is now to hold a community-wide listening session for students, faculty and staff on Monday, February 14th, from 5:30 - 7 pm in Rush Gym.

Between February 15th and February 25th , we will also hold multiple, smaller restorative justice circles. The California Conference for Equality and Justice, a racial equity organization that emphasizes restorative practices, will be present at the February 14th session and will facilitate the subsequent restorative circles. Having multiple sessions will provide more opportunities for community members to participate, given individual schedules, and better reflect the depth and breadth of the issues involved.

Additionally, counselor-led group sessions for students coping with the impacts of anti-Asian hate and racial trauma will be offered next Friday, February 18, 2022. There will be one session open for all students; one session developed specifically for Asian and Asian-American identified students, and one session particularly for Chinese international students (in Mandarin), and we will provide further details about the time of each session as soon as this information is available. 

Finally, we want to let you know about this new webpage where you can find Oxy’s community messages, additional resources on this matter, as well as an update on some of the timeline questions that have been raised. Discussions with students, faculty, and staff in recent days and at this morning’s College Cabinet meeting are helping to inform all of these next steps and more to address our community's pain and anger, and to find a pathway forward as a College together. It’s very clear that in addition to providing resources and support, we need to examine our own internal policies and procedures to consider how we can more effectively address such incidents in the future consistent with Oxy values.

Sincerely,
President Elam