Responding to Campus Events

On Sept. 29, 2021, the Productive Discomfort cohort examined how to productively discuss campus events such as the the attack in College Hall, the BSU Zoom bombing, and the AAPI hate events. Small groups considered the following continuum of responses and reported out what had worked for them.

The results of the report outs include:

• Say nothing: Often used when instructor feels they do not know enough about what happened to be able to discuss it. This was mentioned as something that happens when the messages about an event are ambiguous or the instructor is unaware of what happened.
• Say nothing: Also often used when the instructor feels stressed for time in covering content of the class and does not feel there is time for discussion of event.
• Mention but do not discuss: This was mentioned as a technique for staying on track with course content, but giving some acknowledgement that students may be feeling stressed by what happened. It was suggested in this scenario that faculty could say something like, “I know many of your are feeling stressed by the ______ event. We do not have time to discuss it in class today but I am available in office hours if you want to talk. Also, I can connect you with many resources across campus.”
• Mention but do not discuss: Another way to mentioned for not spending class time on events was to email students before class. It was suggested in this scenario that faculty could say something like, “I am upset about the _____ event. I know that you are upset. We will not have time to discuss the event in class, but here are some resources you can use.”
• Dedicate part or all of class to debriefing the event: Several participants mentioned that discussing the event fit with the social justice nature of their course and they were able to give students time to talk and process the event.

The group also discussed how difficult the transition back to in-person teaching has been. Our classroom skills may be a little rusty and we miss the easy “poll” feature we could use in Zoom to check on students. Some other ideas for polling the class:

• Kahoot polls
• Slido – allows students to scan a QR code and participate in polls.
• Blackboard poll before class to be discussed in class
• Notecard report ins