Taking time to pause for reflection

In a message sent yesterday afternoon, President Fuchs encouraged faculty and staff to consider pausing our normal work activities to reflect on our personal actions and continue to educate ourselves about racism alongside other academic institutions throughout the country.

In his message, President Fuchs recommended two activities for consideration:

• Shut Down for a Day, Build Better Tomorrows, happening today, June 10, seeks to ensure white and non-Black People of Color educate themselves and define an actionable plan for progress against anti-Black racism and for Black lives. This effort encourages faculty and staff to redirect their time, efforts and expertise away from their normal work activities toward these and related goals.
• #Academics4BlackLives, June 19-25, is a personal and professional development initiative intended for academic faculty and staff to examine the toll of racial trauma on Black people, resist anti-Blackness and white supremacy, and seek both accountability and collective action for solutions. If you can only pick one day, #Academics4BlackLives encourages us to make it June 19.

The President encouraged those whose work responsibilities cannot be paused to set aside personal time to reflect on this critical issue.

Participation in some of these activities may be considered time worked if you are taking time to participate during your normal working hours. Please be sure to discuss how and when you may do so with your supervisor; supervisors are asked to encourage participation.

For example, if you want to participate, talk to your supervisor about whether your work can be paused in order to spend time on our university’s efforts in support of this initiative or whether you could take leave (full day or partial day) for time for reflection. The events that take place the week of June 19-25 can be considered time worked if they occur during your normal workday.

We can also choose to be more thoughtful and mindful throughout the day as we go about our normal workday. Regardless, the hope is that we all pause to reflect and educate ourselves.

In recent days, some UF colleagues have shared additional resources, including:

• Guidelines for Diversity and Inclusion in Crisis, CISE Department Chair Juan Gilbert
• African American Studies Project Starters, Librarian Stephanie Birch
• Selected Anti-Racism Resources, Center for Gender, Sexualities and Women’s Studies Research
• Tools for Radical Inclusivity in the Classroom, Center for Public Interest Communications Director Ann Christiano

It you or your department have other resources or work that is underway that you would like to share with fellow faculty and staff, we invite you to email us at hrcommunications@hr.ufl.edu so we can include in future issues.