Week after week, I am moved by the way we are all adapting to such challenging circumstances – our daily endeavors as educators and information professionals to serve others, the small but authentic acts of kindness and solidarity, and the selflessness our community displays day in and day out makes me immensely proud and grateful to you all for your spirit of courage and determination.
As we look forward to better days ahead, I want to highlight a few of our faculty leaders who are taking public actions to mitigate the challenges and to prepare for the future. For example, Professor Pedro Noguera and his colleagues at the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools are joining with the California Association of African-American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA) to host a free online series of webinars to help educators, parents, and others support students during the COVID-19 crisis. The series, Equitable Learning from Home, will provide families and educators with the tools and strategies they need to enhance equity in the virtual learning space in the wake of the COVID-19 school closures. You can read more about it in this week’s issue of here.
Education Professors Tyrone Howard and John Rogers are also raising the issue of equity and joining in on the public conversation about the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 crisis. This week they each weighed in on the steps California needs to take as we prepare to bring students back to school in this important Los Angeles Times article exploring ideas raised by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Next week I will be holding a virtual town hall with the Dr. David Oxtoby, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, to explore how currents of nativism and xenophobia are historically weaponized against immigrants in frightful times. We will consider the recurring metaphor of contamination and pollution as a normative response to newcomers and established immigrants. Finally, we will reflect on the moral and institutional obligation to find oneself “in another” during this COVID-19 crisis.
I thank you all for being individual beacons of light and hope as we move through these days. I continue to wish you and yours a safe and healthy week.
Please take care and keep in touch,
Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco
UCLA Wasserman Dean & Distinguished Professor of Education
UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies