Elizabeth Sturdy, Director of Mentoring and Advising for Graduate Studies, sent the following email to the mentoring list on June 2, 2020. To receive future messages about mentoring and advising guidance, please subscribe to Graduate Studies' mentoring list.

As our nation mourns and protests the murders and violence against Black people seen recently with, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade, we must do more to support our Black graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. I write with resources on how we can better listen, learn, and support during this time. While this is an incomplete list and I am sure more resources will become available in the coming days, I hope it can start conversations and reflections in our work.
 

In Conversation with Your Mentees

Please read this thread by Angeline Dukes on ways to be supportive.

• Ask. Ask how your mentees are doing and what resources they need (resource list below).
• Listen. Let your mentees express how they feel as much as they are comfortable.
• Assure your mentees the research and work can wait.
• Act. Take actions to help your mentee get the resources, extensions, or connections they need. Ensure your program is addressing racial injustice and providing resources (here is a recent example from Ecology). Speak to your colleagues and spread the knowledge of resources.

Campus Resources:

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources for Racial Trauma: includes resources on self-care, mental health, healing, anti-racism, and local organizations.
• Processing Spaces for Police Brutality: Virtual sessions to vent and process hosted by UC Davis student centers.
• Mental Health Resources: Student Health and Counseling Services offers telemental health. To schedule an appointment, call the appointment desk at 530-752-0871; schedule an appointment online via HeM or contact Dr. Bai-Yin Chen, specialist in graduate student mental health. Please visit Counseling Services website for additional mental health and wellness resources.
• Graduate Diversity Officers advise, counsel, and advocate for historically underrepresented graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and work with graduate programs to develop and implement strategies to ensure equity.

Julie Posselt’s Racism and Resistance in Graduate Education Reading List:

• “Am I Going Crazy?!”: A Critical Race Analysis of Doctoral Education
• Responding to Racism and Racial Trauma in Doctoral Study
• The Diversity-Innovation Paradox in Science
• Graduate Students’ Agency & Resistance After Oppressive Experiences
• Bait and Switch: Representation, Climate, & Tensions of Diversity Work in Graduate Education
• My Sister’s Keeper: A Qualitative Examination of Mentoring Experiences Among African American Women in Graduate and Professional Schools

Elizabeth Sturdy
Director of Advising and Mentoring

About Graduate Studies

Graduate Studies at UC Davis includes over 100 dynamic degree programs and a diverse and interactive student body from around the world. Known for our state-of-the-art research facilities, productive laboratories and progressive spirit – UC Davis offers collaborative and interdisciplinary curricula through graduate groups and designated emphasis options, bringing students and faculty of different academic disciplines together to address real-world challenges.
UC Davis graduate students and postdoctoral scholars become leaders in their fields: researchers, teachers, politicians, mentors and entrepreneurs. They go on to guide, define and impact change within our global community.

For information on Graduate Studies’ current strategic initiatives, visit the Graduate Studies strategic plan page.