But the wood is tired, and the wood is old
And we’ll make it fine, if the weather holds.
But if the weather holds, we’ll have missed the point.
That’s where I need to go
-Wood Song, Indigo Girls

A lot has happened in our world since I first used these lyrics four months ago in my first message to you all. We seem way past hoping for the weather to hold, and instead are trying to figure out how to navigate the ever crashing waves and keep our boat afloat. We have many members of our campus communities experiencing greatly increased stress and fear due to the many state laws, executive orders, and other declarations that have occurred for the past few years, and especially in the past several weeks. 

While many of our members have been figuring out how to navigate the many state DEI bans/restrictions and other state legislative challenges to parts of our work for a few years now, we have all been left spinning to try to come to grips with what the barrage of directives and declarations mean for our campus communities and our centers.  I know that the membership of AUCCCD has a wide variety of social and political thoughts and perspectives and I don’t feel the need to debate those points of difference. Instead, I try to lean into what science tells us about the ways these events impact our students and campus communities. Here are just a couple of the ways that I think about these things and try to engage others around me in conversation.

We know that the more chaotic and unpredictable things are around us, the more stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed we can feel. The current “muzzle velocity” of changes that seem designed to flood and overwhelm our systems is significantly contributing to these feelings. Regardless of your political view, the process by which things are happening is harmful to the mental health and wellbeing of many of the people we serve.

We know, from CCMH data and numerous other researchers, that experiencing bias and marginalization can significantly impact someone's emotional distress. Our job in relation to this is two fold - to help folx find ways of managing the distress, and to help our campuses understand the impact of these issues so that they can hopefully choose to find ways of changing campus culture to reduce the amount of bias that people experience.  These are not political points of view. These are impacts that we all see and experience every day in our work with our campus communities.  Science also informs us on many other issues like the legitimacy of LGBTQIA+ identities and the impact of traumatic events on people’s functioning, just to name a few. 

Our campuses have had such different responses to the flurry of changes and edicts. Some have felt the need to preemptively make changes, while others are taking a wait and see approach. For myself, I’m working together with my staff to continue to operate in the way that we have for years while also creating intentional plans so that if the landscape changes quickly and we have to make changes, we can implement thoughtful, intentional changes and not just feel like we have to react. I know that many of you have not had that opportunity. It is this variability among us of who and where we’ve had to change or respond that makes it even more difficult to find ways of supporting all of us as we go through this tumultuous time together.

I think it is important to continue to ground ourselves in what science and our professional standards and ethics tells us, and to communicate from those points of view as we’re trying to impact what’s happening around us. It is these principles that have been guiding the discussions that the Board has been having about ways that we can advocate for our members and campuses.

By the time this newsletter goes out, we will have held several zoom spaces to allow members to talk about their experiences, questions, and feelings related to all of the “muzzle velocity” of changes that have been initiated.  The Board of AUCCCD has spent considerable time discussing these issues and will continue to meet more frequently to keep up to date on changes so that we can be poised to respond, when appropriate, as well as keeping our membership informed and supported with accurate information as we can gather it. 

We are also working to join with other higher education and mental health organizations to advocate for our campuses and centers to address the harmful impacts that many of these current changes have had on our campuses.  

We are all in this together and it will take us each supporting each other for us to navigate these waters so that we can all get through the storm to the other side. Please keep reaching out on the listserve or to the Board and each other for support. Don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any thoughts of what would be helpful to your being able to support your staff and campuses.

I don’t know about you but I definitely relate to the lyrics of feeling tired and old. However, I still believe that we can make it fine - even though the weather isn’t holding. Please take time to take care of yourselves to help combat the weariness that being a Director during times like these brings. 

Know that my heart and thoughts are with you as we all try to help navigate this boat through the storm.