The campus community is invited to watch The Dome for special “Trivia Tuesdays,” which will be published in every Tuesday edition throughout the summer. The first person to respond to pubrel@canisius.edu with the correct answer will win Canisius “swag.” Additionally, once a month on Tuesdays, there will be a special giveaway in which the winner will receive some of the newly designed Canisius Sesquicentennial gear.
Winners will be announced the following Tuesday of each week along with the correct trivia answer.
This week’s special giveaway question is:
What was the original name of the DiGamma Honor Society?
Congratulations to Brandi N. Banks ’13, senior graduate admissions counselor, who is the winner of last week’s Trivia Tuesday contest. We’ll have some Canisius swag waiting for Brandi when the campus returns to normal operations.
Last week’s Trivia Tuesday question was:
Approximately 2,600 Canisius students participate in global service initiatives throughout the year. Can you guess how many hours of service they rack up in total:
(a) 33,000 hours
(b) 45,000 hours
(c) 62, 500 hours
(d) 26,000 hours
The correct answer was: (b) 45,000 hours
(Full disclosure: 55,000 is the most current number of service hours completed annually by students. We’re accepting (b) as the correct answer because there was a typo. Selection (b) was supposed to read 55,000. Our apologies for any confusion.)
How do we make sense of a global pandemic that has caused millions of deaths around the world?
Join us for a new interdisciplinary course titled “Making Meaning in a Pandemic.” In this special summer course, Canisius faculty, alumni and guest presenters will explore the many ways humankind has responded to disease-related crises throughout history.
The course is a collaborative learning opportunity to better understand challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and how we can respond with knowledge, empathy, faith and resilience. An interdisciplinary approach, the hallmark of a liberal arts education, can provide rich perspectives on critical topics, including unprecedented public health disasters.
Topics include: The science of disease | Plagues and responses in the ancient world | Art and pandemics | Catholic and Jesuit responses to plagues | Pandemics through a feminist lens | State surveillance during a pandemic | Frontline healthcare perspectives from Canisius alumni | Covid-19 and marginalized communities | and MORE!
Participants are encouraged to attend as many modules as they would like, whether that means one session or all of them. This is a free, non-credit-bearing course.
Join Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) USA to recognize World Refugee Day on Thursday, June 18, at 2:00 p.m. ET for an online dialogue on asylum.
Those who are fleeing violence in search of safety are being turned away at our borders. Even in a pandemic, we can both protect public health and continue to welcome asylum seekers.
Join JRS/USA as experts discuss the current situation on the U.S./Mexico border, the impact of US policies on asylum seekers in Mexico and what we can do to ensure our system of asylum stays intact even during a global pandemic.
Speakers include:
Yael Schacher, senior U.S. advocate, Refugees International
Patricia Hernandez Lopez, country director, JRS Mexico
Joanna Williams, director of education and advocacy, Kino Border Initiative
Giulia McPherson, JRS/USA, director of advocacy and operations (Moderator)
Jesuits West is offering a four-week “Wrestling with Whiteness” course this July. Fall sessions with different time options will be announced at a later date.
This series will run for four weeks, with online sessions Wednesdays from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. PT, July 1, July 8, July 15 and July 22.
The training will center on creating a shared understanding of white supremacy, grounded in theology and Catholic identity. Participants will learn to articulate their own story of whiteness, opportunity and privilege and analyze how their work is impacted by implicit bias and white supremacy. Participants will get equipped with tactics of resistance to train, organize and move other white people in the work of dismantling white supremacy.
Training outline:
Session 1 – Whiteness and White Supremacy: What is it and how does it show up? Take a deeper dive into the history of whiteness and understanding our role in it, and begin to explore the concept of an “opportunity story.”
Session 2 – Story of Self: Moving from guilt to positive and accountable white identity. Articulating our stakes as white folks in racial justice work. Guidance and training on articulating how your personal story brings you into the work of racial justice.
Session 3 – Implicit Bias and White Supremacy Culture: What are implicit bias and white supremacy culture and how do they show up in our work and activism? Exploring how this gets in our way of truly building power and what is the work we need to do in order to counter it.
Session 4 – Calling In and Relational 1-1s on Race: How do we invite more white folks into this work, challenge our white peers in their relationship to race and how do we build meaningful relationships with people of color.
Participants must be:
– Committed to doing the work of racial justice and dismantling white supremacy.
– Active with a Jesuit parish, school, university or other ministry. That includes attending as a student, working at, volunteering with etc.
– Committed to attending all 4 cohort sessions by video and completing assigned preparation and homework.
– 16 years old or older.
Participants can register here for the summer session or register to receive information about the fall sessions.
Submitted by: Sarah Signorino, director, Office of Mission & Identity
A number of colleagues have reached out to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to share the actions they are taking to address structural racism, inequity and social injustice. There are also members of the college community who would like to start and/or continue conversations with their departments and offices in an effort to respond to the challenge framed in President John Hurley’s message, “to reflect on the injustice in front of our eyes, on our campus, in our hometown of Buffalo, in New York State, in the United States and in the world … How can we recommit ourselves to the promotion of justice in the lives of people of color? How can we address this in our teaching and learning, in our scholarship and in our service activities?”
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion has compiled a list of resources that might be helpful as individuals, offices and departments engage in this work of reflection and action:
Special thanks to Melissa Mosko, PhD, associate professor of philosophy, who contributed to this list and who is developing a more extensive list of resources for the college.
Submitted by: Fatima Rodriguez Johnson, MS ’98, associate dean for Diversity & Inclusion
