To: All Instructors
Dear Colleagues:
The escalating violence in the Middle East is having a significant impact upon the UCLA community, with students, faculty and staff experiencing strong feelings of anger, pain, anxiety, loss and more.
In this difficult moment, we urge instructors to extend flexibility, kindness and understanding to students, TAs and colleagues who may be deeply impacted.
We also wish to share a set of resources that may be useful to you in the days and weeks ahead:
- The Teaching and Learning Center has created a resource guide on navigating emotionally charged discussions in the classroom, written with the current situation in mind. This resource also offers valuable advice with regard to offering flexibility in equitable and transparent ways. This link to the guide will take you to Box first, then redirect you to Google Docs — you will need to sign in using your UCLA Logon ID: Teaching Strategies to Support Academic Continuity Through Difficult Times (PDF).
- The Dean of Students offers general guidance on de-escalation in the classroom (PDF). See also campus operational guidance for handling classroom disruptions (PDF) which may involve individuals other than enrolled students.
- If an in-person classroom environment becomes unsafe or unproductive, departments may invoke short-term emergency distance authorization as provided in the appendices of the Graduate Distance Education (PDF) and Undergraduate Distance Education (PDF) policies. Instructors should check with their departments about their level of individual discretion in this area.
- Our Faculty Code of Conduct reminds us of our duties to our students, in particular the duty to refrain from coercion of students’ conscience or judgment (see also APM-015 (PDF).)
- Instructors may direct students to Counseling and Psychological Services for individual support.
- Anyone experiencing harassment should report it through our Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. If you feel unsafe or threatened, immediately contact UCPD or call 911.
Finally, recognizing that the challenges of the current moment affect all of us as well, we encourage instructors to monitor their own well-being and reach out to the Staff and Faculty Counseling Center if needed.
We thank you for your ongoing efforts to support instruction in this difficult time.
Sincerely,
Brooke Scelza
Chair, Graduate Council
Catherine Sugar
Chair, Undergraduate Council
Andrea Kasko
Chair, Academic Senate
Kathy Bawn
Vice Chair/Chair Elect, UCLA Academic Senate
Jessica Cattelino
Immediate Past Chair, UCLA Academic Senate
Download this BruinPost PDF Here.
