Category Archives: Main Menu

Conflict in Ukraine

Dear campus community,

As the world watches the military action in Ukraine, I want to reach out to those members of our Spartan community who have family, friends, colleagues, or roots in Ukraine and the region. For many the last weeks have been stressful and frustrating, moving now to terror. For those members of our Spartan community who are veterans, currently active in the military, have loved ones in the military or hail from military units that may be deployed to this region, the days and weeks to come will also be a source of worry, anxiety, and frustration. And there are many of us who are simply distressed at the violence and significance of these world events.

When conflict of this level occurs anywhere in the world, members of our campus community of students, staff, faculty, volunteers, and alumni are invariably impacted, sometimes gravely. Many aspects of our identity and connections are visible only to those closest to us. We ask that you continue to treat each other with grace and support.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Wong(Lau)
Chief Diversity Officer
Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

As a reminder whether you are seeking support yourself or for others in our community:

Students and employees have access to emotional support and counseling services. Students are encouraged to contact Counseling and Psychological Services or SJSU Cares and employees are encouraged to contact the Employee Assistance Program.

For those interested in contributing to support those affected by the conflict, the LA Times has an article with a list of non-profit organizations.

Resources for Our Students and Employees

As always, SJSU has resources available for our students and for our employees should members of the Spartan community experience emotional distress or trauma. Detailed information on our resources is listed below.

For students: 

If you have a mental health emergency and need immediate assistance please contact Counseling and Psychological Services.  There is always a staff member available to assist you. Please call 408-924-5910 or visit us at sjsu.edu/wellness.  All of our services are being offered online through confidential video or phone sessions.  

For after-hours emergencies, please call 911. If you live on campus, please call campus police at 408-924-2222. You may also call our main number 408-924-5910 after hours and press 4 to connect with the after-hours crisis service.

Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Line is also available at 855-278-4204 (Toll-free) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This service is also available 24/7. In addition, you may send a text for help: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Call Center will respond 24/7/365. 

International students who need assistance regarding restrictions on travel and other issues can find resources from SJSU’s International Students and Scholars Services.

For employees:

Counseling for Faculty and Staff

Visit LifeMatters®  online for more information. Password: SPARTANS

To speak to someone from LifeMatters® confidentially, call 800-367-7474.

Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Line is also available at 855-278-4204 (Toll-free) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This service is also available 24/7.

In addition, you may send a text for help: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Call Center will respond 24/7/365. 

Message of Support for Members of Our Community

Dear campus community, 

I am writing to you today as the violence between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza continues. 

Both peoples – Israelis and Palestinians – have a right to a secure and peaceful life. It is hard for many of us in the U.S. to imagine the suffering and horror that is happening on both sides with Israeli cities constantly bombarded by rockets from Gaza, and Gaza being bombarded by Israeli airstrikes. Lives, homes, businesses, and worlds are destroyed. Within Israel, tensions between Jews and Arabs who have lived together, many in mixed cities, have become explosive. 

For a significant number of our students, staff, and faculty who have families and friends living in Israel or in Gaza, the worry, grief, and anger has been around the clock and constant, with little hope for an end or pause in violence and deadly force.

As the rhetoric and political criticism rises in the media, and particularly in political discourses on campuses, we need to watch for when legitimate criticism becomes mixed with anti-Semitism, scapegoating and hatred. And as well, when legitimate criticism becomes mixed with Islamophobia and hatred. Both of these threads have a distinct and specific history of weaving themselves into personal attacks and rendering entire groups of people into well worn decades-old stereotypes legitimizing hatred and discriminatory behavior. We cannot abide by that. 

As much as public universities offer a space for criticism of all kinds, they can also offer opportunities for dialogue and reaching out across divides. Many in Israel and here in the U.S., Jews and Arabs, have been involved in initiatives that offer hope for a better future for all. It is my hope and plan in the future for our office to host a dialogue for those who wish to engage in similar initiatives on campus. 

As we enter finals week, please know that the concerns we have for the well-being of our students, faculty and staff are shared by our Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and by our campus leadership. It is my hope that we may continue to exercise grace and provide support as we do our work whether we are students, staff, faculty or administrators. Please reach out if you see someone from our community who may be in need of support during these difficult times as we continue many of our interactions remotely. 

As always, SJSU has resources available for our students and for our employees should members of the Spartan community experience emotional distress or trauma. Detailed information on our resources is listed below.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Chief Diversity Officer

___________________________________

For students: 

If you have a mental health emergency and need immediate assistance please contact Counseling and Psychological Services.  There is always a staff member available to assist you. Please call 408-924-5910 or visit us at sjsu.edu/wellness.  All of our services are being offered online through confidential video or phone sessions.  

For after-hours emergencies, please call 911. If you live on campus, please call campus police at 408-924-2222. You may also call our main number 408-924-5910 after hours and press 4 to connect with the after-hours crisis service.

Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Line is also available at 855-278-4204 (Toll-free) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This service is also available 24/7. In addition, you may send a text for help: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Call Center will respond 24/7/365. 

International students who need assistance regarding restrictions on travel and other issues can find resources from SJSU’s International Students and Scholars Services.

For employees:

Counseling for Faculty and Staff

Visit LifeMatters®  online for more information. Password: SPARTANS

To speak to someone from LifeMatters® confidentially, call 800-367-7474.

Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Line is also available at 855-278-4204 (Toll-free) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This service is also available 24/7.

In addition, you may send a text for help: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Call Center will respond 24/7/365. 

Solidarity with Campus Communities Impacted by Global Conflicts

Dear campus community,

As we enter the last weeks of the semester, I find myself once again writing to you to raise awareness about troubling incidents that are affecting members of our campus community, local community and global community. We express solidarity with those in our communities who are gravely impacted by these incidents. 

Five days ago, on the final Friday of the observance of Ramadan, Israeli police entered Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, a site holy to Muslims to clear the mosque of Palestinian worshippers. Scores of Palestinians were injured many of them protesting the plans for evictions of Palestinian families from homes from which they have lived for generations in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. We understand that our Palestinian students, faculty, and staff are experiencing fear, grief, and anger. 

The situation of serial retaliations and escalation continues daily with rockets fired from Gaza into Israel and airstrikes from Israel from Gaza, all numbering in the hundreds, the most firepower since 2014. As of this morning the death toll has risen to 53 in Gaza (14 children) and to six in Israel raising fear, anxiety, and anger for Palestinians and Jews in the region, around the world and for students, faculty and staff on our campus who have ties to these communities. There is growing concern that the conflict will continue to escalate and spread into a war. 

Four days ago in Kabul, Afghanistan, 85 people were violently killed and 147 injured by a terrorist car bombing of a girls’ high school. The victims were mostly school girls from the ethnic minority community of Hazara Shia Muslims. This attack impacts members of our Afghan American community as well as Shia Muslim communities from other ethnic groups with ties to this area and all who have supported the education of girls in Afghanistan. Communities are experiencing grief, shock, anger and fears of more similar bombings. 

It is difficult to publicly acknowledge the tragedies, grave conflicts, and issues that impact our campus communities. For a significant number of our community these incidents are part of a larger conversation on global and regional conflict that imbues our national discussions on our nation state, military engagement, and political, diplomatic and economic relations that are fraught with difficulties that stretch over generations and regions. Please know that our role in a public university is to provide resources, outreach, space for discourse, and connection to support you and provide a sense of belonging in a large complex institution nested in a larger complex global community.  

I know that there is a sense of outrage fatigue, a sense of yet another horrible incident. For some, these incidents bring but a brief notice, maybe even sadness, but for some the pain, grief, and suffering stretches over days, months, years, and generations. It is important to know that in this global and local community of San José State University that many of the world’s troubles impact various members of our campus community at different times. And while some may read this message as just another message in the long line of messages on mass shootings, conflict, killing, violence, death from COVID-19, each message helps us make visible and give voice to the stresses and grief of different communities. It is my hope that we may continue to exercise grace, provide support, and even give ourselves grace as we try to show up and do our work whether we are students, staff, faculty or administrators. 

As you finish out the final weeks of your semester please know that the concerns we have for the well-being of our students, faculty and staff are shared by our Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and by our campus leadership. Please reach out if you see someone from our community who may be in need of support during these difficult times as we continue many of our interactions remotely. 

As always, SJSU has resources available for our students and for our employees should members of the Spartan community experience emotional distress or trauma. Detailed information on our resources is listed below.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Chief Diversity Officer

___________________________________

For students: 

If you have a mental health emergency and need immediate assistance please contact Counseling and Psychological Services.  There is always a staff member available to assist you. Please call 408-924-5910 or visit us at sjsu.edu/wellness.  All of our services are being offered online through confidential video or phone sessions.  

For after-hours emergencies, please call 911. If you live on campus, please call campus police at 408-924-2222. You may also call our main number 408-924-5910 after hours and press 4 to connect with the after-hours crisis service.

Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Line is also available at 855-278-4204 (Toll-free) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This service is also available 24/7. In addition, you may send a text for help: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Call Center will respond 24/7/365. 

International students who need assistance regarding restrictions on travel and other issues can find resources from SJSU’s International Students and Scholars Services.

For employees:

Counseling for Faculty and Staff

Visit LifeMatters®  online for more information. Password: SPARTANS

To speak to someone from LifeMatters® confidentially, call 800-367-7474.

Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Line is also available at 855-278-4204 (Toll-free) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This service is also available 24/7.

In addition, you may send a text for help: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Call Center will respond 24/7/365. 

 

In Solidarity with our Communities Here and Abroad

Dear campus community,

As we enter the last weeks of the semester, I want to take the time to raise awareness about troubling incidents that are affecting members of our campus community, local community and global community. 

First, today is #MMIW Awareness Day, a day to raise awareness about the continuing tragedy and loss of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people through acts of racial violence and misogyny in the U.S. and Canada. A majority of these murders are committed by non-Native peoples on Indigenous land. As a campus it is important for us to know that our awareness extends to conditions of settler colonialism that our Indigenous colleagues and students experience in their everyday lives. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities. I want to commend the work of one of our faculty, Dr. Soma de Bourbon and her students in previous years for their moving and impactful annual campus installment of the Red Dress Project that many of you may remember from recent years. For more information, events, and resources on MWIW, you can visit. 

I also want to offer belated condolences to our Jewish community for the loss of life of Jewish Israelis five days ago, when 45 people were killed and 100 more injured during a stampede while attending a religious festival in Israel. Some of the victims were children. We know that this loss of life impacts members of the Jewish community as well as  anyone who can only imagine this horrific loss of life at a time when people were gathered to worship and celebrate. 

Lastly, I want to recognize the great concern, fear, and anger at the killing of over 30 people in different cities and towns of Colombia by militarized police who have been firing into crowds of peaceful tax reform protesters over the last 7 days. We know that there is great fear as observers report inaccurate information about the extent of civilian casualties, serious injuries, sexual assaults, and the extent of individuals detained. This uncertainty, public violence, and the militarization of the country weighs heavily on those members of our campus community who are Colombians and have friends and family in Colombia as protesters turn to protesting this police violence, economic inequality, and human rights violations spread wide across other regions in the country. 

It is often difficult to publicly acknowledge the tragedies, travesties, and issues that impact our campus communities. I know that there is a sense of outrage fatigue, a sense of yet another horrible incident. For some, these incidents bring but a brief notice, maybe even sadness, but for some the pain, grief, and suffering stretches over days, months, years, and generations. It is important to know that in this global and local community of San José State University that many of the world’s troubles impact various members of our campus community at different times. And while some may read this message as just another message in the long line of messages on mass shootings, violence, death from COVID-19, each message helps us make visible and give voice to the stresses and grief of different communities so that we may exercise grace, provide support, and even give ourselves grace as we try to show up and do our work whether we are students, staff, faculty or administrators. 

As you finish out the final weeks of your semester please know that the sentiments of the staff at the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion reflected above are shared by our campus leadership. Please reach out if you see someone from our community who may be in need of support during these difficult times as we continue many of our interactions remotely. 

As always, SJSU has resources available for our students and for our employees should members of the Spartan community experience emotional distress or trauma. Detailed information on our resources is listed below.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Wong(Lau)

Chief Diversity Officer

____________________________________

For students: 

If you have a mental health emergency and need immediate assistance please contact Counseling and Psychological Services.  There is always a staff member available to assist you. Please call 408-924-5910 or visit us at sjsu.edu/wellness.  All of our services are being offered online through confidential video or phone sessions.  

For after-hours emergencies, please call 911. If you live on campus, please call campus police at 408-924-2222. You may also call our main number 408-924-5910 after hours and press 4 to connect with the after-hours crisis service.

Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Line is also available at 855-278-4204 (Toll-free) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This service is also available 24/7. In addition, you may send a text for help: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Call Center will respond 24/7/365. 

International students who need assistance regarding restrictions on travel and other issues can find resources from SJSU’s International Students and Scholars Services.

For employees:

Counseling for Faculty and Staff

Visit LifeMatters®  online for more information. Password: SPARTANS

To speak to someone from LifeMatters® confidentially, call 800-367-7474.

Santa Clara County Suicide & Crisis Line is also available at 855-278-4204 (Toll-free) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This service is also available 24/7.

In addition, you may send a text for help: Text HOME to 741741. The Crisis Call Center will respond 24/7/365.