Volume 1, Issue 7: August 6, 2020
R.I.S.E.* Up Newsletter
*Reinforcing Inclusion through Skill-building and Education
Photo with caption - in fond remembrance of Dr Shirley Smith Seaton Dec 1 1924 - July 29 2020
Remembering Dr. Shirley S. Seaton

We received news this week of the passing of Dr. Shirley Smith Seaton. Dr. Seaton was the first Assistant Director of the Office of Minority Affairs (now CSDI) in the 1980's. Dr. Seaton leaves a lasting legacy and many friends at JCU.

Salo Rodezno, Director of the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, shares his memories of her:

"I met Dr. Seaton in 2011 in the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion’s (CSDI) old location in the Administration Building. I was sitting in my office trying to make sense of the files I inherited when she strolled through my door to say hello. Dr. Seaton introduced herself and shared that my new office belonged to her when she was the Assistant Director of the Office of Minority Affairs (OMA) in the late 1980s. At the moment, she was working on campus as the Liaison for Community Affairs with an office in the Grasselli LIbrary (a job she started in 2007). I offered her tea and we sat and talked. This became a routine for us for the next 8+ years..."

On this day in history...
Today, August 6, is the 75th Anniversary
of the nuclear bombing of the city of Hiroshima
by the United States military.
Image of Pedro Arrupe SJ with quote - The diagnosis of war as well as that of violence is the result of a single violence - hatred... The antidote for hate is called love ... which is the most precious quality of the human person.
Fr. Pedro Arrupe, who would later become the Superior General of the Jesuits, was a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing in 1945, when he was a young priest. This experience would come to define his life and would inform his thinking on issues of intercultural understanding, solidarity, and human dignity.

JCU's own commitment to justice, diversity and equity was deeply influenced by Arrupe, who insisted that Jesuit institutions must adopt a commitment to education for justice. "Our prime educational objective," stated Arrupe in 1973, "must be to form [people]-for-others... [people] who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; [people] completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for [human beings] is a farce."

For more about how Hiroshima influenced Arrupe's solidarity and justice work, we recommend this article by JCU alumnus Jimmy Menkhaus ('03, '05G) commemorating the 70th anniversary of the bombing: "Lessons from the Spirit of Pedro Arrupe."
Division Events and Announcements:
Virtual Resource Fair
for Incoming Students
Student Accessibility Services will be holding a virtual resource fair for incoming JCU students on Wednesday, August 12, from 7:00-8:00 pm ET. For more information contact [email protected].
computer_idea_web.jpg
Image - cover of the book The Person You Mean to Be - How Good People Fight Bias - by Dolly Chugh
Summer Community Book Read
The Summer Community Book read is now in its third week. Are you joining us late and need a refresher on the discussion and reflection topics from last week?

Click the link below to catch up:
R.I.S.E. Higher: Featured Article of the Week
A Dry Run at a Socially Distanced Classroom
Anna McLoon and Sarah K. Berke, Inside Higher Ed, August 3, 2020

To prepare for the upcoming fall semester, faculty members in the School of Science at Siena College tested three scenarios for a socially distanced classroom based on published guidelines from the New York State Governor’s Office and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here’s what we learned. We hope faculty at other campuses might consider these findings helpful.

Masks and spacing make it difficult to hear and be heard. When collaborating with physical distancing, noise is a big problem. We found that the groups of four struggled to communicate, and pairs worked best. Group work, in the sense of having more than two people, may not be feasible. We also found that distancing did not affect all voices equally...
.... (click below to read more)
Announcements from our network:
Jesuit Antiracism Retreat

“Know Justice, Know Peace” is a four-week retreat hosted by The Jesuit Post that seeks to assist Christians in their growth as antiracist followers of Jesus. It will consist of twelve short talks published in the form of videos and podcasts. Click on the image for a video preview.
Image of Health Advocacy Summit banner with date and time
Health Advocacy Summit

The Health Advocacy Summit (HAS) is a daylong, no cost advocacy event for young adults (between 13 and 30) living with chronic and rare diseases. This year's Summit will be held virtually this Saturday, August 8 from 11 am - 9 pm ET. Summit topics include "Navigating College and the Workplace with a Chronic Illness," "Intersecting Identities and Minority Health," "Chronic Illness and Entrepreneurship," and more.

Upcoming Webinars:
Anti-Racism Teaching
and #BlackScholarsMatter

Next week, both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature will present webinars on racism, featuring leading scholars from all across the nation. See the links below for more information and to register.

(August 12)
(August 12-13)
graphic of Black Scholars Matter symposium participants
Justice TREEE diagram - Educate - Engage - Effect
Plant a Justice T.R.E.E.E.
at the Ignatian Solidarity Network

In previous newsletters, we featured our new ecological, community-centered model of anti-racist development that we call the "Justice T.R.E.E.E." It has now been published online by the Ignatian Solidarity Network.


Our newsletter will be on pause next week.
Look for our next issue in your email inbox on August 20!