Dear MDECOE community,
It’s time to really look at the impact, and trauma, of the pandemic on students, faculty , staff, community, all of us. In her article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sarah Brown of the University of Wisconsin , Milwaukee, looked at how one university is creating space for people to process the pandemic’s damage. ”When the university surveyed students on how they were faring last academic year, most of them said they were making it through their classes and obligations. But they didn’t feel connected — to the campus, to their professors, or to each other. One faculty, Adam Jussel, summed up many students’ feelings this way: I’m hurting, but I just don’t know what to call that.” A separate survey, led by Jussel and Dimitri Topitzes, a professor of social work, “examined the trauma experienced by about 1,000 faculty members, staff members, and student employees. About 40 percent screened positive for post-traumatic stress disorder. About 70 percent had at least one PTSD symptom.” So Jussel and a team of administrators, faculty members, and students started working on what he described as a “human centered and trauma informed” return-to-campus plan. The design-think process produced a few concrete ideas for how the university might rebuild community. Since then, Jussel has convened most of the participants every two weeks to move them forward. Here are some of their strategies to address trauma on their campus:
- One suggestion was to develop a training session about trauma. Jussel teamed up with Topitzes, the social-work professor, and Jason Katte, assistant director of counseling services, to create a one-hour workshop on how trauma affects people, and how to react when someone shows signs of trauma. This month, they began offering the training for student-orientation leaders, as well as any interested faculty and staff members.
- Jussel’s group also worked with academic affairs to develop a trauma-informed tool kit for professors, offering guidelines for integrating care into their teaching. “We don’t want to coddle and cater to our students to the point where we lose our mission,” said Professor Topitzes, who’s also co-founder and associate director of the university’s Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. “At the same time, we want to honor their experiences so that they can bond with the institution at the same level, if not at a deeper level.”
- The university is designating a handful of spaces across campus for contemplation and meditation, or just getting away for a few minutes on a busy day. The goal, Topitzes said, is to transform a few existing communal spaces, like a room on the third floor of the student union, with soft lighting, comfortable seating, and resources on meditation.
- Jussel’s group is also working with the campus chapter of Active Minds, a mental-health advocacy group, on a campaign promoting self care, especially for faculty and staff members. Formal meditation might not be for everyone, Jussel said, but a walk in nature might be.
Read the entire article by Sarah Brown (.pdf)
And let’s also be aware of the impact of pandemic trauma on our most vulnerable community members. The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) has a special issue on “the impact of the pandemic on child well-being with a retrospective lens, and sobering because all indications are that the pandemic took, and continues to take, an enormously detrimental toll on the most vulnerable among us.” To read more, see Special Issue on COVID-19 and Child Maltreatment.
For a list of many self-care options, please see our COE self-care website for resources for faculty, staff, students, and the community at:
https://www.csun.edu/eisner-education/self-care/articles-information-self-care
It’s time to get real about the trauma of the pandemic and how we need to plan for recovery for ourselves and those we serve.
Warmly,
Shari