Conference Sessions

Day 1: Monday, Jan. 25th, 2021

Keynote Speaker: Luhui Whitebear

Luhui Whitebear is a member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and the Assistant Director of the Oregon State University Native American Longhouse Eena Haws. She completed her Ph.D. Spring 2020 through Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at OSU. She also received her B.S. in Ethnic Studies, a second B.S. in Anthropology, and M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (WGSS, Ethnic Studies, and Queer Studies focus), all from OSU. She is a mother, poet, and Indigenous activist. Her research focuses on Indigenous rhetorics, Indigeneity & reclaiming Indigenous identity/gender roles, murdered & missing Indigenous women, Indigenous resistance movements, and national laws & policies that impact Indigenous people. Luhui is passionate about disrupting systems of oppression and creating positive change in society.

11:30 - 12:30 PM: Supporting and Engaging Student Employees during COVID, by Kate Walford

Supervisors of student employees play an important role in student development and support. The COVID-19 crisis has dramatically changed how we work, including how we employ and interact with our students. This session will provide ways to support and engage your student employees during this time. We will discuss balancing compassion and support with structure and job expectations, building relationships and community with student employees in a virtual or limited interaction environment, and hiring and onboarding students virtually. Time will be provided for participants to discuss implementing new practices with student employees.

2:00 -3:00 PM: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Higher Education: What if Campus Supported Every Brain? By Alena Ruggerio & Erica Knotts

Higher education across the U.S. is slowly growing in our understandings of the ways many of our students have been affected by Adverse Childhood Experiences, and in our use of trauma-informed pedagogies in the classroom. Yet undergraduate students are not the only individuals on campus to have survived traumas or to have developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In this time of the heightened collective traumas of a global pandemic, national social upheaval, and higher education crisis, discover the rhetorical reasons why people with PTSD in the academy are so often assumed to be white male veteran undergrads, and then collaborate on solutions that widen the university’s responses to trauma for everyone from staff to administrators to faculty to graduate assistants.

3:15 - 4:45 PM: Building Professional Community: Staying Connected and Maintaining Focus During a Global Pandemic, by Sophie Pierszalowski, Stephanie Ramos & Gabs James

Working from home has presented many challenges for higher education professionals, including difficulty focusing and staying motivated. In this session, we will explore creative ways to build and sustain community and motivation during the current global pandemic. First, we will highlight the value of, and successful strategies for, “attending” virtual conferences remotely "with" colleagues. Second, we will provide an example of two successful cross-campus networks that were created before the global pandemic and explore strategies for sustaining networks like these remotely. These community-building strategies will help attendees find creative ways to stay engaged, focused, and motivated while working remotely.