July 2020 WACUBO News
President’s Message: Ruth’s Ruminations
Having just led my first WACUBO Board meeting, I want to offer some thoughts about this coming year. Yes, it is unprecedented. Not only are we continuing with the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are suffering financial woes, and we have growing racial unrest. It is a hard time to be leaders in higher education, and higher education needs leaders like us to speak out, and to listen deeply. This is a call to our resilience and our ability to support our students, staff and faculty as we adapt and learn, seize opportunities, rethink how we do everything, and keep up our stamina.
I write this on Juneteenth, 2020, a day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. It was on June 19, 1865 that word of the Civil War’s conclusion finally reached Galveston, Texas, and all those held in slavery were to be freed – a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It’s symbolic that this year a pair of Supreme Court decisions were announced the week of Juneteenth, both in furtherance of social justice with regard to DACA and our LGBTQ communities.
WACUBO is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, we created a diversity statement, and we add our voice on the WACUBO home page to the collective intolerance of racism and injustice. We urge you to review this commitment and we seek your feedback. Please know that we welcome and appreciate all comments because we want WACUBO to be a safe place to express a diversity of ideas that we can consider in our discussions as a Board.
This year WACUBO is focused on supporting you – our members – with relevant programs offered virtually, hybrid, and we hope in person in May 2021 in Anchorage at the annual meeting. We are planning for all scenarios and deeply hoping enrollments are strong enough to afford us to travel. We will poll membership in early Fall to make that decision.
In the meantime, feeling your energy drained? We are offering the Business Management Institute using a virtual platform that includes great classes with knowledgeable faculty to help us all ready for Fall, with CPE, new courses and meaningful connect sessions, spread over Monday – Friday, August 3 – 7.
The Professional Development Steering Committee is eager to hear your programming needs – skills, information or topics you’d like to know more about. One way we’ll do that is through a virtual Happy Hour (BYOB) that I’ll host on Tuesday, July 14 from 5 p.m. – 6 .m. PST. Join me and other colleagues for a casual get together on Zoom. This will be informal and broad in nature, discussing what you want to talk about in addition to the question of professional development ideas and needs. Find more information about the Virtual Happy Hour here.
In the meantime, please consider joining one of our topical WACUBO list serves. They include topics like the COVID Relief List, Enrollment List, and Remote Leader List. The complete list of listservs can be accessed here and navigation and subscription instructions can be found here.
I know planning for return to our campuses is all consuming, but I urge you to take some time to rest, reflect, and ready your staff and your campus, with help from WACUBO, for a welcoming and productive Fall term.
Ruth
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