Dear Members of the Campus Community:
With the new semester in full swing, you are likely reflecting, as I am, on how challenging it can be to fully process painful events in the world around us when there is so much else happening in our immediate surroundings. Even in the midst of this I sincerely hope you are finding ways to experience a sense of being on a lively, energized university campus.
Sadly, 2023 has come with no shortage of tragic developments in global news, from the recent, deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, to the brutal and unjust killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, to the killing of officer Adeed Fayaz here in NYC, to mass shootings in California and elsewhere that continue a disturbing trend of violence in the United States. I know the earthquakes are especially devastating for the many Turkish students enrolled here at New Paltz this semester, some of whom have lost family, friends, and homes.
Even when episodes like these do not directly affect our campus or individual members of our community, they can still contribute to an atmosphere of experienced trauma that adds tension and anxiety to our busy lives and taxes our resiliency and hope. The impact can be especially profound on New Paltz students, faculty and staff already struggling with more tangible forms of adversity, like housing or food insecurity, family crisis, mental and physical illness, or interpersonal violence.
I share these thoughts not only to acknowledge how forces near and far impact our students, faculty and staff, but also to call on the community to consider how unseen stressors may be affecting the people around us and how we relate to one another.
A recent incident on campus helps make this point: A dog leash left hanging in a tree was reported by a member of the community who viewed that act as a potential expression of hatred, visually resonant with our nation’s history of public lynchings and happening during Black History Month. There was an immediate response to the report. After a UPD investigation, which included interviews and confirmation that there is no video of the area, we have no evidence that points us to any actor or actors, and we also can’t reach the conclusion that there was malicious intent in this case; but that does not diminish or make less valid the experience of our students, faculty and staff who saw this object in this context and were hurt by it.
As a community, we react to and engage with the trauma-inducing experience in different ways. Our senses can be challenged as we integrate immediate gut and visceral responses with contemporary and historical events that can re-traumatize and exacerbate already fragile relationships between and among individuals and groups. As we all seek to find ways of navigating these truly unprecedented times in U.S. and global matters, we must do the internal work that examines our impact and the changes in ourselves that are in our power to make.
I, too, am on this journey and take this opportunity to write our community not just in response to recent events, but as part of an effort to keep the doors of communication open so that we are not just reacting to events but engaging one another in proactive ways to identify potential risks to our community members and to mitigate these before they escalate to harmful and traumatizing experiences. With heart and head, spirit and commitment, we can move through this world together. It requires us to be truly inclusive, to accept one another’s humanity unconditionally, and to think carefully about how our actions either further trauma or nurture learning and growth.
I believe these practices are already embedded in our campus culture – one reason why I was so enthusiastic about joining the SUNY New Paltz community last year – but we can always do better. I thank all students, faculty and staff who are willing to join me in this work, for their compassion and intention in this process of caring for and building resilience in ourselves and one another.
Darrell P. Wheeler
President
