These are the times that try men’s souls.
A white man murdered two African Americans, Vickie Lee Jones, 67, and Maurice E. Stallard, 69, at a supermarket in Kentucky on Oct. 24—simply because they were black.
On Oct. 27, a white man walked into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and murdered 11 elderly Jewish people—simply because they were Jewish.
During the week of Oct. 21, a series of pipe bombs were sent to politicians and public figures across the country—simply because of their political affiliations.
Hate, it seems, had a busy two weeks.
The Penn community came together on Oct. 29 for a vigil and memorial to the victims of the synagogue shooting in front of the LOVE statue on Locust Walk.
Chief Wellness Officer Benoit Dubé says the palpable sadness, under-the-surface anger, and helplessness expressed at the vigil, and a collective need to recognize it and endure it together, was the impetus for “A Campus Conversation on Hate and its Aftermath: How to Preserve One’s Wellness in Challenging Times,” which will be held on Monday, Nov. 5, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Class of ’49 Auditorium in Houston Hall.
A collaboration between the Division of the Vice Provost for University Life, the Office of the Chaplain, and student leaders/wellness groups, the program invites the University community to come together to talk about the effect of hate on wellness and explore ways to foster wellness in an atmosphere of pain, hate, and fear.
“There have been a lot of reasons for people to be angry and/or afraid, so we thought this would be a unique opportunity for us to have a Campus Conversation to address and validate the emotions that people are having,” says Dubé, “and to create a setup wherein students can come and hear from their peers, but also from staff, and administrators, and faculty who also have the same struggles and are faced with the same challenges.”
Dubé will moderate a panel including University Chaplain Chaz Howard, Erin Cross of the LGBT Center, and Rabbi Mike Uram of Penn Hillel, who will be joined by students Yasmina Al Ghadban, co-chair of Penn Wellness; Michael Krone, president of the Undergraduate Assembly; and Haley Pilgrim, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly.
The audience will hear stories from six people who “have an individual journey who have struggled with different emotions, but who also have found ways to cope, who have found ways to keep their head above water, and, more importantly, may still be struggling, but have found a way to make it manageable,” Dubé says.
The second portion of the event will break out into discussion circles facilitated by students from peer support organizations like Penn Benjamins, Penn Franklins, the RAP-Line, and Penn Reflect.
Howard says he hopes the Campus Conversation brings about healing, hope, and “very practical steps of how to take care of oneself” during difficult days.
“There’s a communal trauma that a lot of us can experience when hard news hits like this, and the contagious fear and discouragement that a lot of us are carrying because of what’s going on in our country and world,” he says. “I hope that the conversation on Monday will allow us to move toward even being well in hard times.”
