Racial equity and creating a safe campus
September 22, 2020
— by Marie Skanis, counselor, UAF Student Health and Counseling Center
As we return to university life, I want to recognize together how much we are all
contending with this semester. For instance, our lives have and are continuing to
change due to COVID-19. Travel for many has likely been a confusing process. Daily
activities have become more complicated. Jobs and finances for many have been in flux.
Parts of day-to-day life are under the political spotlight in new ways – going to
the grocery store, for instance. While COVID-19 has made accessing healthcare more
complex for everyone, political decisions have resulted in major shifts in healthcare
coverage and rights for members of the LGQBTQIA+ community.
For some, the experience of racism and advocating for racial equity is ongoing, and
has been part of life for a long time. For some, issues of racial equity are more
recently entering into awareness. As one of your campus counselors, I want to share
my thoughts and hopes for our university. I am fallible like anyone else, so I write
to you from a place of openness, knowing I will have more to learn. UAF is a space
for learning, and I encourage everyone to give themselves and others similar grace
to learn and contribute.
My hope is that, as we all consider how to maintain safety on our campuses related
to COVID-19, we can also each think about our role in racial equity in this community.
We have inherited systems that work against many of us. We have inherited biases that
work against many of us. My hope is that everyone at UAF takes time to consider ways
to encourage change, safety, acceptance and equity. Everyone has something to offer.
You won’t be on the journey alone. The UAF Student Health and Counseling Center will share more about anti-racism this semester, alternating between education and
ideas for entry points to allyship and action. We invite you to join us to find ways
to carry some of the burden that racial equity brings so that no one group shoulders
it all. Let us find ways towards change together. Some of what I will share is inspired
by the writings of Ibram X. Kendi, Grace Lee Boggs and Jenna Arnold. As time allows
in your lives, I invite you to join me in seeking out such voices to inform our self-growth
and advocacy.