Task Force for Building Community and Fighting Hate at PSU

Dear PSU Students, Faculty and Staff,

As we return to campus for winter term, it is essential that we commit to ensuring that PSU is a place where everyone can feel a sense of belonging and pursue their educational journey free from fear.

I can’t say this too often: We do not tolerate antisemitism, anti-Palestinian harassment, Anti-Arab discrimination, Islamophobia or hate in our community. While there might not be anything we can do or say to alter global conflicts, we can build the community we desire here at home by rejecting intolerance and co-creating an environment where peace and the pursuit of knowledge can thrive.

As I announced last month, I am commissioning a task force to support and strengthen our community in the wake of recent events. The task force will gather input and make recommendations for building a safe campus community and healing rifts that have occurred. The task force will be made up of four committees that will address the following four topics:

Violence Prevention and Response: Ensuring that all members of the campus community are physically safe and free from violence and fear.
Climate and Psychological Safety: Promoting a campus climate that provides emotional and psychological support to members of the campus community who are experiencing pain, fear and instability in their lives.
Education: Creating and reinforcing critical opportunities for learning and insight on complex current and historical issues, fighting misinformation and encouraging critical thinking. This committee will have two tracks: antisemitism and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab bias.
Intergroup Dialogue and Engagement: Forging new opportunities to build intercultural engagement across cultures, identities, positionalities, histories, worldviews and experiences.

In response to the urgency of the current context, committees working on the first two topics will begin work immediately with the intention of having a plan we can embrace as a campus community and begin to enact by March. The other two committees will adopt a longer-term strategy with work continuing through the spring term.

I have invited former president Stephen Percy to serve as the chair of the task force. Steve is well known as a listener, bridge builder and convener at PSU. Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion Ame Lambert will serve as a consultant to the task force, bringing the expertise that serves our campus community every day. I have also invited Trustee Mark Rosenbaum, who has deep experience in intercultural and interfaith dialogue, to join the task force. ASPSU will ensure that student representatives will participate in each committee and we will also engage the greater Portland community in this work, including Wajdi Said with the Muslim Educational Trust.

Steve, Ame, and I welcome your expressions of interest in serving on these committees or as at-large members by Jan. 16. Nominations — including self-nominations — can be made online using this form.

PSU has an opportunity to prove that higher education can and should stand against bias, discrimination and hate while also encouraging complex thinking and dialogue across differences. I invite all of you to join in this important work.

Learn more about the task force and track its progress on the President’s site.

Sincerely,

Ann Cudd
PSU President