July
From your AIMHO Executive Committee Members of the Association of Intermountain Housing Officers, We write to you today with both anger and sadness. George Floyd, Tony McDade, Sean Reed, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery are more victims, among countless others, who have violently lost their lives or had their lives threatened because of the color of their skin. These tragic and unnecessary events have once again shone a spotlight on racially motivated violence and systemic discrimination in our society. AIMHO's leadership stands in solidarity with those protesting systemic injustices, including police violence, and is committed to addressing systemic oppression, discrimination, and racism on our campuses, in our organization, and in our society. Inclusion has been and continues to be a core value of our Association. As AIMHO, we affirm Black lives, denounce systems that allow identitybased violence to persist, and demand change. In the words of Angela Davis, “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.� We encourage each of you to join us in this anti-racism work. Not just in speaking out against hatred and bias, but in actively seeking out change in our political and cultural systems. We need to work together to confront, prevent, and extract anti-blackness and acts of hate/ bias. To our Black colleagues, we see you and are happy you are members of this Association. We know we need to do better as an Association if we claim to provide you a professional home. We need to do the work of educating ourselves and not relying on you and other BIPOCs on our campuses, in our region, and elsewhere to hold us accountable. For our White colleagues, especially those holding positional power: know and acknowledge that your colleagues and peers of color are tired. Whether passive or active, we have created systems in which Black folx bear the burdens of seeing Black humans murdered in the news, losing family and friends at a higher rate to COVID-19, and educating on the Black experience to those who have more than enough power to Google it themselves--all this on top of the daily micro- and macro-aggressions inherent to systemic racism. Instead of upholding oppressive systems, those of us in positions of privilege and power should be leveraging our positions to dismantle these systems, extract the bias and hate, and rebuild in the image of an equitable society; our colleagues of color have been bearing the burden of striving for justice alone, and in AIMHO that ends now. Many of us need to start and continue to educate ourselves on these issues. We have listed many resources through multiple media below this message. But our anti-racism cannot remain passive, we must take action as well. If you are struggling to find specific ways to do so, start here: 97 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice.
For all those who are advisors and supervisors of professional and/or student staff, we further challenge you to reflect and take action on the following questions:
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How are you addressing this moment in history with students and staff?
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How are you training your staff to be anti-racist educators?
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How will you recognize and then dismantle systems in place that disproportionately discipline or create disparate outcomes for your students of color?
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How are you actively recruiting and retaining a team representative of your student population? As an Executive Committee, we are committed to taking the following actions short-term to combat the White supremacy and anti-blackness that we know shows up in our Association:
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Propose and advocate for the membership to approve a new Equity & Inclusion Director position on the Executive Committee, focused solely on accountability for Association leadership and instilling Inclusion throughout our Association’s work
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Create and advertise a streamlined membership process that includes introducing new individual members to Affinity Groups as part of their first interactions with AIMHO, whether at a conference or online.
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Provide resources for Social Justice education and anti-racism on the AIMHO website.
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Seek out and hire keynote speakers for our professional and student conferences over this next year whose expertise and talks center on anti-racism work.
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Review and renew the White caucus in a virtual space this November to challenge our White members to start and/or continue their self-work towards allyship. We emphasize short-term because we know and recognize that this journey must be on-going. You can expect longer-term commitments to come, and we invite you all to hold us accountable to that. Thank you for joining us, being you, and taking care of yourselves and your campuses. We appreciate you, especially our Black colleagues, during these impossibly difficult times.
Your AIMHO Executive Committee
Dr. Chip Thomas, President
Megan Chibanga, Secretary
Todd M. Justesen, President-Elect
Dr. Catherine LaRoche, Senior Level Member at Large
Dr. Cory A. Shapiro, Past President
Jacquez Gray, Entry Level Member at Large
Mike Schilling, Treasurer
Luke Symington, Technology Coordinator
Carol Hardy, Treasurer-Elect
Jediah Cummins, Corporate Relations Coordinator John Terry, Corporate Relations Coordinator
For those of us who work in family and graduate housing, COVID 19 has not lowered our occupancy rates, but it certainly has changed how we create community. At the University of Utah, we have continued to house over 2,500 graduate and student families, so resident assistants have been working creatively to build community. Playgrounds are closed; some people are hunkered down inside their apartments and others are playing outside without a care.
Every June when we are not experiencing a pandemic, we offer a birthday party with cake, ice cream, sparkling cider, petting zoos, and carnival games. Thanks to COVID, we had to get creative to keep the birthday party alive!
This June our ”Happy Birthday Everyone” party will be delivered door to door by the resident life team with a bag full of Little Debbies (AKA cake), toys, games, candy, hand wipes, kleenex and a birthday card listing campus and community resources. We had to give up on the ice cream this year! On a Zoom call, the resident life team sang “Happy Birthday” and each court/area shouted “Happy Birthday” to their respective area. This song and a video of the staff safely stuffing the birthday bags with masks and gloves was sent out several days prior to birthday bag delivery. Residents were allowed to opt out if they did not feel comfortable having a bag placed on their door. We asked residents to post photos of their family celebrating their birthday on our Facebook. COVID community building at its best!!
As a resilient, creative resident life team, it was wonderful to be together in a socially distanced community center to assemble the Happy Birthday Everyone treat bags! Great team building and lots of fun for our student families!
Valerie Green Associate Director of Resident Life University Student Apartments University of Utah
ACUHO-I Foundation: Working to Dismantle Racism
Barb Remsburg—Executive Director Housing & Residential Education—The University of Utah The ACUHO-I Foundation is the only organization that raises money for ACUHO-I to fund large-scale educational programs, research initiatives, and practice innovations for campus housing and residence life professionals around the world.
Research Grants 2019 •
The Experiences of Resident Advisors (RAs) Facilitating Social Justice Interactions in the Residential Curriculum Model (Univ of Colorado – Colorado Springs)
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Exploring the Multidimensional Outcomes of Living, Learning, and Leading in Residence Life for Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students (Univ. of MN)
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Psychology of Grit in a Residential Academic Context (University of Cape Town)
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Using Inclusion Assistants within a Residential Curriculum to Improve the Experiences and Success of Historically Marginalized Populations (Central Michigan University)
2020Virtual Conference Calls for an Online Process Online Silent Auction Software •
Reliant on donations from region, donor sends winning donor the item
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Non-attendees could donate and bid
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Friends of AIMHO in other regions could engage and lend their support
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Focus: Education items focused on dismantling racism: Books, seminar, registration, video
Consider Serving as the Foundation Representative to AIMHO •
International connections and network
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Professional development focus on fundraising
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August call for application/nomination to make recommendation
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$250 lifetime giving at time of application, $100 per year while serving
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Institutional travel support for winter meeting and ACE
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Two year role
Pandemics, Black Lives and System Oppression: A time for change Dr. Kyle Oldham, Colorado State University & Justin Peterson, Utah State University AIMHO College Committee Co-Chairs
As a Committee for Pre-Conference Development Initiatives (AIMHO College & AIMHO Symposium), we are committed to challenging the work we do with professional development to engage in conversations and learning related to becoming antiracist, anti-oppressive housing professionals. This fall, we are exploring topic content, faculty recruitment and literature that can support the learning environment for new professionals to think critically about their work, develop skills and frameworks that support ongoing learning and integrate common practices and emergency responses into the narrative that requires thinking differently and shifting traditional perspectives that we have come accustomed to on our campuses.
On our campuses we are faced with challenging budget figures, developing plan after plan for CDC guideline influenced occupancy options for on campus student populations, laden with the greater campus decisions to move to hybrid online learning classrooms and face-to-face instruction. Each of these decisions being informed by the unknown and possibilities of pandemic responses that are in constant flux. Finding personal protective equipment for essential staff workers, engaging the concerns of students still residing on campus because of lack of options, supporting frontline staff and live-in staff without other options available to them for work. Compounding all of these issues with the social unrest related to Black Lives Matter and systemic oppression that continues to uphold systems of white supremacy, particular when it’s reflected in the policies and procedures of our departments and higher education institutions. The tidal wave of inconsistency, concern and ambiguity only grows taller, stronger and faster, threatening to encompass all we have known from our years of experience, student affairs prep programs, and emergency crisis manuals we have come to realize are also not prepared for this.
Black Lives and Systemic Oppression Regardless of our responses and our understanding, surrounding our current place. The call for action and change are a necessity. As we think about professional development for humans who happen to be housing professionals. The need for self-reflection on our own actions, knowledge, skills and awareness has never been greater than this point. There are a number of blogs, articles, books and resources (some of which we have included below) that could fill your summer, fall and into next year reading list. To answer the questions stirred by the uncertainty and unrest we are facing is a MUST. To evaluate our thoughts, actions and behaviors is compelling. This is because as humans we must examine the impact we have on others around us and the communities we call home. This is because as housing professionals the work we do to support student success as part of a campus community, is greatly impacted and hindered by the actions of professionals who cannot grasp the effects of our current world on the students, staff and faculty that will be showing back up on campuses this fall. The work we have decided to do, to provide housing, food, safety, and support (hey Maslow!) to students pursuing education, can only be as good as the work we do on ourselves to understand the layers of systemic oppressive issues facing us all, impacting us all, and disproportionately those communities of underrepresented populations.
We cannot pretend to do ‘the work’, we are paid to do, if we are unable to examine our own selves as part of the system, part of the environments, and parts of the problems and solutions. The professional development that we must begin to build for ourselves has to start in hard places, asking and answer the hard questions, and examining the traditional actions, decisions and policies we have learned to rely upon as second nature. This is a time for an innovation of ideas and approaches to doing our work, where we truly think about centering the most marginalized to ensure equitable practices and access. This is a time for collaboration in our work, as we provide and receive resources to create communities of purpose, support and social justice. This is a time to demonstrate that we truly do live out the missions, visions and values of our departments, our institutions and even ourselves, as we sit at the precipice of watching and needing our profession to adapt, change and press forward to provide safe, supportive and intellectually stimulating communities of care for our students and staff.
AIMHO College and Symposium are committed to embarking upon the challenge of providing space and opportunity for new and aspiring professionals to find their voice and critically think about the tasks of their jobs in alignment with their values and desires. The question is what are you doing with your sphere of influence, and opportunities that lie ahead. The resources below are just a start to educating oneself on developing an antiracists practice. At Colorado State University, we’ve had offices and leaders send emails, drafting letters of solidarity, updated websites to make a statement and provide opportunities for self-guided learning. These are larger systemic initiatives that you may not have access to launch on your campus, but it doesn’t mean you can’t continue to think about your own sphere of influence for change. We encourage you to take time and reflect on the following prompts to discuss personally or with your colleagues on your campus: •
How are you adapting training to include a focus on anti-racism, anti-sexism, antihomophobia, anti-oppression?
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Can you take time to examine hiring practices (if you’re able to hire, ijs*)
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What policies and procedures have always been upheld, that may no longer apply because of the change in practice to the housing profession, or because you’ve always wanted to spend some time assessing the impact on students and staff?
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What time are you providing staff to learn and grow personally to better serve the students and staff of your department?
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What professional development do I need to be a socially just, socially conscious housing professional that enacts and lives my values?
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What are you willing to risk, to try the new innovative approaches that this virtual landscape is calling for?
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Am I the person holding up change and progress, and if so, why?
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Do I know the person, policy, procedure, or unspoken ‘rule’ that is holding up change and progress? If so, what can I do about it and who are my allies?
*ijs = I’m just saying. There are a number of other questions that can be used to start the conversation with yourself and with others, add them to your list and start the dialogue. This is the professional development we NEED, and the time to start your professional development plan and journey is NOW.
RESOURCES
Not an exhaustive list but resources were circulating through listservs (NACAS, Chronicle of Higher Education, and others)
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What Should I Do? A Living List of Actions
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Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not
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Anti-Racists Books, Films and Podcasts
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Resources Archive - Black Lives Matter
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School Resources - National Education Association
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A Detailed List of Anti-Racism Resources - Medium
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Resources for Parents - USA TODAY
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Fighting For An Anti-Racist Future Together - Forbes
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Talking About Race - National Museum of African American History and Culture
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White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy - Teaching Tolerance
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Checklist for White Allies - Power Shift Network
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75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice - Medium
COVID 12 Responses While social justice and the process of becoming an effective ally or accomplice may have so many fantastic resources that a list of where to start becomes helpful, we are not so fortunate when it comes to Covid-19. A scenario that is so completely unique to our profession and institutions, that the only way to garner information and advice on dealing with it is to reach out across the country to other professionals. Ask each other what we are seeing and experiencing first hand, what actions and initiatives have been effective, and what unforeseen obstacles have been encountered?
Recently we find one of the obstacles that seems to permeate through every institution is a “whiplash” effect caused by the constant influx of conflicting information from leadership entities versus scientific communities. At my own institution, Utah State University, we are struggling with the fact that our city council is petitioning to have us moved from “yellow” status to the much safer “green” status that would all but make daily activity “business as usual.” This petition was voted on almost unanimously by our local leaders at the same time that Logan, Utah was named the largest hotspot for growing Covid19 cases in the US, and 287 workers tested positive at a local meat packing plant. This information may indeed affect the decisions our institution has or will make for move-in and operational plans come Fall. We are tethered to uncertainty at a time when decisions are going to have to be made last minute over summer when many of our professional staff are off contract. We may have a say in some of those decisions, but not all of them or maybe even most of them. The skill trait of “adaptability” has never been put to the test quite like what we are experiencing now as training, procedures, budgets, occupancy restrictions, and countless other considerations are still up in the air and may change at any minute. Quick changes also make it hard on initiatives or projects that we may already be strapped for time to work on. The reality is that time is just not on our side when it comes to dealing with the beast that is Covid-19. But that reality is one that highlights just how important connecting through professional conferences and keeping the dialogue alive through articles and preconference programs can be. We NEED thinkers and collaborators to connect and grow a unified voice to be able to make sure our voices are heard at tables where they NEED to be heard. We NEED multiple people across multiple institutions sharing the work on finding the best practices surrounding Covid-19 and protecting our staff and students while still meeting our objectives of providing food, safety, and support (that Maslow guy again!). We encourage you to think about the professional development opportunities needed to continue learning about being an adaptable, nimble change manager in your work as a housing professional. Reach out to others, ask questions, attend meetings, town halls, or coffee talks on your campus or being offered by associations to learn more and be in community with others in your field. This will add to your network of contacts and support to continue learning and growing about the work that needs to be done. As part of AIMHO College & Symposium we are once again committed to providing space for new and aspiring leaders in the housing profession to discuss experiences, realities and challenges related to the transition of creating housing experiences for students and developing skills and awareness that build the next generation of housing leaders. To get you started, begin thinking about the following questions to add to your list for dialogue: •
Where do social justice issues and Covid-19 issues overlap? Are there communities that have been hit especially hard by Covid-19 that may require more support at your institution? What does that support look like?
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What priorities and initiatives may need to be triaged into a different order to accommodate focus on Anti-racism training and Covid-19 changes?
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Who are my local leaders and who do I need to identify to contact to make myself and my colleagues voices heard? Who are my allies in this process?
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What similarities may our institution be sharing with others in regards to Covid-19 and what issues are unique?
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What questions can we as an organization come up with to ask other institutions to gain useful information and better prepare our response?
Remember professional development is an on-going journey that we are all on. How we approach it and what tools and resources we have at our disposal will change and develop over time, but the common action that must be done is that we must START the journey. We hope the questions provided give you a place to start thinking about the COVID19 pandemic and the systemic oppression that continues to devalue Black Lives. These questions and links cannot be all you do, they are a place to begin.
We invite your new professionals/grads and aspiring leaders to join us this fall at AIMHO College and Symposium as participants, presenters and faculty, for more discussions and learning on how these two topics are only the beginning of the intersection of relevant issues facing us as a community, housing profession and society.
In Solidarity.
INNOVATIVE. COLLABORATIVE. DEMONSTRATE
AIMHO 2020 is GOING VIRTUAL!! Join us in November from the 10th to 12th virtually as we hold our annual conference. We are working on some great things to see and take part of, for example AIMHO Connections, AIMHO Awakens, Our amazing presentations, our business meeting, connecting with our corporate partners, State Meetings, Social Time together, and being apart of the AIMHO Family. So block off the calendar, get your computer ready, and join us to be apart of something great! If you are interested in doing a presentation for the conference, the Program Committee will be sending out the application around the beginning of August. If you are interested in being a volunteer in one of our committees, we will have more information in the next AIMHO Angle, but we will be looking for Chair, Co-Chair, and volunteers to serve on our amazing committees. We also have several open Executive Committee positions that will be posted in August with details on the process to apply and then go through the election. Look for that information around August and the next AIMHO Angle. We will also be asking for bids to host RAppin 2022! If you are interested in hosting our RA conference in 2022, consider submitting a bid to host in 2022. We will have more information about this in the next AIMHO Angle.
Upcoming Election Info What we are voting on: 1. Proposed Equity and Inclusion Director – Authors: Jacquez Gray, Mike Schilling, & Dr. Catherine LaRoche 2. Proposed Election By Law Change – Author: Dr. Chip Thomas, AIMHO President 3. Proposed Professional Development Position – Authors: Shaydean Saye & Korrin Fagenstrom 4. Proposed Name Change Pre-Conference Committee – Authors: Dr. Kyle Oldham & Justin Peterson
Who can vote: We will be sending the voting link to each member’s Institutional Member (i.e., the person who receives the annual dues invoice).” This could be your SHO, Accounts Manager, or some other individual within the department. If the institution’s voting delegate is not present, on annual leave, or no longer works at the institution, please reach out to the following individuals: Mike Schilling ( mwschilling@arizona.edu ), Carol Hardy ( carol.hardy@umontana.edu ), and Luke Symington ( lsymingt6827@arizona.edu ) to replace this voting delegate. When can we vote: This email serves as notice to the region that an election will take place starting 8:00am MDT, Monday, July 13th, 2020 and will end at 5:00pm MDT Friday, July 17th, 2020. We do need quorum to count this election. If you received the voting email, then please discuss these proposals with your team and during the dates listed above please submit your vote. We will be sending out reminders throughout the week to hopefully receive a vote from every member institution. On Monday, July 6th, another email will be sent with a link to a day and time to allow for questions on the four different legislative proposals from the region. Proposals: legislation_-_equity_&_inclu.pdf legislation_-_2020_election_.pdf legislation_-_professional_d.pdf legislation--aimho_college_r.pdf If you have any questions, please reach out to Chip Thomas—AIMHO President ( rmthomas@coloradomtn.edu )
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Articles due August 2st for September issue