 Welcome to the 2020 Rackham Fall Welcome. We are excited to present our virtual program to you today. No matter where you are today and this semester, know that you are part of the University of Michigan and you are a Wolverine. In that spirit, here to kick things off are members of the University of Michigan Fanfare Band. I'm Dr. Alphonse Peter Wanakwat, lecturer in LSNA and American Culture who will read the Territorial Acknowledgement. I want to thank the members of the University of Michigan for giving me the opportunity to speak about the students and their stories that have been here from this year's college. This is a very長 and будемing event that I would like to share with you this evening with you as well as with other students and staff from different types of schools and from those who are interested in learning It's the Ojibwe part of the acknowledgment. Now I will read the English part of it. The University of Michigan is located on the traditional territory of the Nishnabe people. In 1817 the Ojibwa, Budawa, and Bodoadmi nations made the largest single gift to the early University when they seated land through the treaty at the foot of the rapids so that their children could be educated. Through these words of acknowledgment their contemporary and ancestral ties to the land and their contributions to the University are renewed and reaffirmed. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to the Dean of the Rackham Graduate School, Dr. Michael Solomon. Dean Solomon is a professor of chemical engineering and professor of macromolecular science and engineering. His research interests are in the area of complex fluids which are soft materials with properties intermediate between fluids and solids. His teaching interests have included development of graduate courses in nano and colloidal assembly and light scattering. As an associate dean at Rackham, Dean Solomon focused on academic programs and initiatives including working with the school's faculty-led cross-campus initiative on graduate student mentoring. As Dean he is working diligently with students, faculty, and staff to get input that will create an enhanced student-centered experience for all Rackham students. Hello, I'm Dean Mike Solomon. I would like to take this chance to personally congratulate each of you and to welcome you to what I believe is a place like no other the Rackham Graduate School. It's a place in the community that can help you learn and create new knowledge as you pursue your goal of a graduate degree. You are part of a long tradition at the University of Michigan. U of M conferred its first master's degree in 1849. It awarded its first PhDs in 1876 and in fact these were the first doctorates awarded at a public university in the United States. Nearly 150 years later I welcome you to a very different place in a very different time. It is exciting to meet you virtually. We Rackham faculty and staff have been working and planning for your arrival since April although there is much that is uncertain about this moment our mission to support you as you pursue your educational goals and research discovery is unwavering. Since spring our Rackham community has been struggling and striving to address three simultaneous and interconnected challenges. COVID-19 is affected nearly every aspect of research scholarship and instruction along with our personal lives and the lives of those we care about and care for. The effects of anti-black racism are present in our communities every day and they are also present in our own institution with its legacy of privileging of white individuals. There are furthermore the cruel ramifications of federal policy changes that especially affect international and undocumented students. I admire the way Rackham students, staff and faculty have responded to these challenges over the past few months. You as new Rackham students have also persevered as you charted your transition to join us here for graduate study wherever you are located around the globe. I respect the resilience you have displayed. Of course even in a moment that feels so different from what we have known before this resilience is an important resource to draw upon as a graduate student. There are many avenues to support at Rackham and across the university to help you as you progress in your degree. You can learn more about these resources through the video link below and I hope that you will. Your holistic well-being is important to all of us at Rackham. We will strive each day to create an environment in which you feel safe, valued and welcome and which you can engage in the discovery, free inquiry, open exchange of ideas and creation of knowledge that graduate education is all about. When I start a graduate school I face challenges of my own. They're not the level of the challenges we currently face. I would like to share them because I think they are relevant to our current distanced and possibly isolated circumstances. I majored in engineering as an undergraduate but in a year prior to graduate school I traveled abroad. I hadn't thought about academics in 14 months when I arrived on campus. I arrived late just as classes started and somehow ended up living in the law school dorm even though I wasn't in law school. In my courses we had weekly problem sets due and I would go back to my dorm room and work really hard on them by myself but I wasn't finishing them. I was worried about my first midterms and then one day I walked into the library and a bunch of my classmates were sitting there together working on the problem sets that I had found so challenging. It was an impromptu study group. I made a really good choice that day which was to sit down and work with that group. Even though I hadn't known it, they were struggling just like I was. They helped me not only with the problem sets themselves but also with a sense of shared interest and difficulty. There was solidarity there and it really helped me start my graduate studies. And so even though because of COVID-19, these types of groups might take place this year over a computer or under an outdoor canopy, I strongly recommend that you seek out some kind of informal study, work or academic group within your program or department. These groups which don't need to be more than a few classmates working together can help you transition into your first year as a graduate student. The message is that even during a pandemic, you don't need to navigate the launch of your graduate studies on your own. Study groups are just one kind of group on campus. At an institution as big, diverse and inclusive as University of Michigan, there are many opportunities to join groups and organizations outside your program. Some of my graduate students that I mentor in my laboratory have shared with me how groups outside the department, groups like Rackham Student Government, Students of Color of Rackham and Graduate Rackham International have been a joy and help to them. You can learn more about these groups and many, many others at the Virtual Information Fair to follow. Please take this chance. Our Rackham students in these organizations have voiced to me that they want to meet you, support you, engage with you. The way we make connections may have changed for now, but the importance of doing so absolutely has not. In fact, I think creating community for yourself is more important now than ever. I also want to stress that there are many things that the Rackham Graduate School can do for you. Please think about your own goals and take advantage of the support that Rackham offers to help you achieve them. For example, applications for our diversity, equity, inclusion, professional development certificate have just opened. We are launching weekly Rackham 101 sessions this fall to connect you with the services and resources that Rackham has to offer. We have career based workshops, research grants, supports for your well-being and numerous other resources and programs to assist you. After today's event, you can find continually updated information on the Rackham website and in our weekly student newsletter. I encourage you to be intentional about what you want to accomplish during your education here and to take full advantage of the ways that Rackham can be your ally in that pursuit. I'd also like to take this opportunity to ask about something that you could do for Rackham. We are interested in your graduate student experience, what challenges you and what supports you. We are committed to using these data that we collect to improve graduate education, to enhance student success and catalyze new research in the field of graduate education. As a part of this effort, we survey different groups of Rackham students to learn more about your experiences. For example, later in the year, a number of you who are master students will receive a survey about your experience in your graduate program. Moreover, in a few weeks, a survey invitation will go out to first year PhD students. This is a significant opportunity for your voice to be heard to let us know about your transition to doctoral study. It is very important that we hear from students so that all voices and experiences inform our future efforts. Therefore, if you receive a survey invitation for us, I hope you will participate so that all of us at Rackham and those who come after us can benefit. This dovetails with the planning and outreach we are doing with faculty and student organizations to develop long term strategies to better serve you as students. Of course, this academic year, there is something else that you can do for Rackham, for yourselves, and for the entire University of Michigan community. Please join your fellow students along with UM faculty and staff in following the safety measures across campus that will help us protect us all and stop the spread of COVID-19. Keep a safe distance of six feet or more. Wear a face covering. Limit the size of your gatherings and meet outdoors if possible. Wash your hands thoroughly. Stay home if you feel sick. Please help inform others about the importance of following these public health guidelines so that we can all continue to work, learn and pursue our goals. Over the course of the year, I commit to a communication with you about what you're experiencing. To that end, I will be writing a regular column in the student newsletter to address questions and concerns here from Rackham students and the student organizations who represent you. In addition, we have a long history of town hall dialers at Rackham. We hold four per year, and we will continue to hold these this year. And finally, I will host a state of the graduate school event in mid September that we will invite you to. I'm thankful for the chance to undertake this important work and to serve as Dean of such a varied and academically vibrant community. I'm thankful for the outstanding staff, excellent faculty and devoted colleagues across campus who make our efforts possible. And most of all, I'm thankful that you have chosen to join more than 8500 Rackham students at the University of Michigan for giving shape to the vital issues of our day. Welcome to the next step in your intellectual journey. Thank you. Thank you, Dean Solomon. At Rackham, we care about your success. To help you and your graduate student journey in Michigan, we have created a list of 10 resources that will be of great value to you during your time as a graduate student. Links to each of these resources are available next to this video. Number one, the Rackham Virtual Information Fair. Kick off the year by connecting with over 70 campus organizations live at today's Virtual Information Fair. Representatives from campus clubs, departments and programs will be on hand to answer questions and tell you more about how they can enhance your graduate school experience. Number two, the Rackham Graduate Student Emergency Fund. The Rackham Graduate Student Emergency Fund is intended to help meet the financial needs of Rackham graduate students who encounter an emergency situation or one time unusual or unforeseen expenses during their graduate degree program. An in-depth list of situations eligible for funding can be found on the Emergency Fund webpage. Number three, CAPS Embedded Counselor. We value mental health here at Rackham. At this time, I would like to remind you that the University of Michigan Counseling and Psychological Services, UM CAPS, offers free and confidential counseling, crisis walk-in support, group psychotherapy and psychological assessments for graduate students. The CAPS Embedded Psychologist for the Rackham Graduate School is Dr. Laura Monchu. Number four, Rackham's COVID-19 page. Here you can find resources and information of specific interest to graduate students during the evolving situation with COVID-19. This page will be updated promptly as new information becomes available, so please check back frequently. Also, please continue to consult UM's coronavirus website. Number five, Rackham 101. We invite you to join members of Rackham's recruitment, engagement and partnerships team every Friday at 2pm Eastern for Rackham 101. Rackham 101 is a series of virtual workshops on topics that will help you navigate and succeed in graduate school. Topics include wellness, career exploration, navigating relationships with your advisor, and more. Check your email and the Rackham Weekly Newsletter for registration information. Number six, Services for Students with Disabilities, SSD. SSD is here to support the university's commitment to equity and diversity by providing support services and academic accommodations to students with disabilities. SSD shares information, promotes awareness of disability issues, and provides support of a decentralized system of access for students within the university community. To learn more, please visit ssd.umich.edu. Number seven, Rackham Student Organizations. Rackham is fortunate to have strong student organizations that are committed to enhancing and elevating their graduate student experience. Our three organizations are Rackham Student Government, RSG, Graduate Rackham International, GRIN, and Students of Color of Rackham, SCORE. You can learn more about these organizations and how they can help you in your graduate school journey at our September 4 workshop as part of Rackham 101. Number eight, Rackham Resolution Office. The Rackham Resolution Office provides a safe and confidential environment to discuss concerns and advises faculty, postdoctoral fellows, staff, and students on matters related to emergencies, crisis situations, disputes, and student conduct violations. The Resolution Office also provides information about Rackham Graduate School and university policies and procedures, makes referrals, and offers resources. Number nine, the Michigan Doctoral Experience Study, MDES. The MDES is a longitudinal study aimed at understanding the experience of PhD students here at Rackham. The goal of MDES is to use the data to better inform and meet the needs of Rackham graduate students. Keep an eye out for this year's survey in your email. Number 10, Wolverine Wellness. Wolverine Wellness' purpose is to foster personal and community well-being for UM students in college and beyond. Wolverine Wellness offers fantastic services such as wellness coaching and focus sessions. At this time, it is my honor to introduce our keynote speaker. Dr. Kristal Williams is an assistant professor of higher education in the educational leadership, policy, and technology studies department at the University of Alabama College of Education. Her research explores the use of public policies to promote college success for underrepresented students with an emphasis on the interplay between policy initiatives and students' various psychosocial factors. Recently, her work has focused on these issues as they relate to, one, broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for underrepresented groups, and two, reducing students' economic and academic strains in college. Dr. Williams was a former American Educational Research Association, AERA, post doctoral fellow at Educational Testing Service. She also served as a research assistant at the University of Michigan National Center for Institutional Diversity and as an institutional research analyst at Washtenaw Community College. Dr. Williams earned her PhD in higher education and public policy here at the University of Michigan. During her time at Rackham, Dr. Williams was also a member of the prestigious Edward A. Boucher graduate honor society. Greetings. My name is Crystal Williams, and I am currently an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Alabama. I am also a proud graduate of the University of Michigan, where I completed my doctoral studies in the College of Education and the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. It is my pleasure and indeed my honor to be one of the first to welcome you as an incoming graduate student to the University of Michigan and also to extend a heartfelt go blue. You are about to embark upon one of the most important decisions about your professional development, and you could not have chosen a better place to receive a world-class education than the University of Michigan. I've been invited to speak to you on this momentous occasion, and I want to talk a bit about something that is very, very important today. I want to talk about change. Specifically, I want to talk about moving beyond the concept that I refer to as passive activism. In doing so, I also want to give you a few strategies, a few tips to consider for using the multiple resources available on campus to accomplish just that. Let me first say that the other day, if I'm being honest, the past few months, it occurred to me that we are in a moment. We are in a moment where we are struggling with the global implications of a health pandemic. That's fairly obvious, but we're also in a moment where the health pandemic has illuminated the economic pandemic that has long-afflicted low-income communities. Communities that often don't have the luxury of staying at home to slow the spread because they must show up to their low-wage jobs as what we now refer to as essential employees. That is, if they are even still employed, we are in a moment. We're in a moment where the health pandemic has exposed the challenges of public health recommendations to practice social distancing, not just in terms of many individuals' desires to go to bars, to go to restaurants, to do so with or without a mask, and to socialize, but also in terms of multi-generational households, many of which are Black, Asian, or Latinx, where being socially distanced simply is not an option. The parents may have to go to work every day. The children may have recently returned to school where masks are optional and everyone is coming home to an 80-year-old grandparent. CDC recommendations for these families, avoid public transportation, wash your hands when you get home, open a window, don't hug, don't kiss, and don't share food. We are in a moment. We're in a moment where the health pandemic has unearthed racial biases and inequities that have long bubbled under the surface of the land of the free. But are we really free? Are we free in a country where there's been a drastic rise in hate crimes and anti-Asian incidents as a result of the coronavirus and the racist rhetoric from some of our very own elected officials? Are we really free? Are we free in a country that can simultaneously embrace hip-hop culture, jazz, Beyonce, Oprah, Jordan, Kobe, and anti-Blackness racism at the same time? Love the culture, but oppress the people. There's a reason that we say Black Lives Matter. It echoes the sentiments of Sojourner Truth, who is often cited for simply asking Ain't I a Woman in her address at the Women's Rights Convention of 1851? It echoes the sentiments of Black men holding signs that read I Am a Man at the Memphis Sanitation Worker Strike of 1968, a protest that ensued after two of their colleagues were killed while working in inhumane conditions, and the Memphis Department of Public Works refused to compensate those families. Yet in 2020, we still find it necessary to remind people that Black Lives do indeed matter. Are we really free? We are in a moment. So the question becomes, what do we do now? In fact, what will you do in this moment? How will you operate within your sphere of influence to bring about change? I titled this address, Moving Beyond Passive Activism, to encourage a bit of confusion, a moment of reflection, and even some questioning. Passive activism is a phrase that's meant to be provocative. What does it mean to be a passive activist? How can one be both passive and active at the same time? Well, let me offer a definition. Passive activism is the state of being for social justice in principle, but not in action. Stated differently, it is when one embraces social justice in theory, but not indeed. A passive activist may understand that certain jokes may be racially or culturally insensitive, but may shy away from correcting others when such comments are made. Passive activism is a willingness to hashtag equality for all, hashtag BLM and the like, and social media, but an unwillingness to have a difficult conversation around the dinner table when inappropriate, derogatory, or big statements are made. Passive activism is knowing that there are discriminatory practices happening around you. Practices you actually don't agree with, but you decide to remain silent. Running away from the good trouble that the late Congressman John Lewis often noted, it is a persistent failure to use your voice in your platform to bring about change. I want to encourage you to know that the time is now and the moment is here. As an incoming student at one of the top institutions in the world, you have an opportunity and I dare say an obligation to use your experience at the University of Michigan to be the active change agents that the world so desperately needs. If you're an incoming graduate student in the cause of education as I once was, ask the difficult questions about educational disparities. Not simply differences in test scores and other important student outcomes, but probing questions about why those differences exist. What are the opportunity barriers that create those differences? And once you understand those barriers, commit to identifying the solutions that are desperately needed to dismantle those obstructions. If you're a student of computer science within the College of Engineering, consider how technological developments can potentially disadvantage certain groups. For example, what are the implications of increased reliance on facial recognition software that is ill-equipped to identify people from different genders or people from different racial backgrounds? And what can you do to address this issue? Be the change agent. If you happen to be a student of public health, make it part of your personal professional development curriculum on campus to better understand how the economic and social conditions of underserved communities connect to lower health outcomes. A reality that exists today and was quite honestly prevalent even before the current pandemic. But to be sure, it's not enough just to know the correlations with that understanding. I would encourage and I dare say challenge you to connect with your colleagues in social sciences and other fields across campus to craft real solutions for today's and likely tomorrow's problems. Ultimately, in whatever discipline you're pursuing, be the active change agent in your sphere of influence. So with that being said, you may ask, how can you be a change agent? Well, correct question. Here are some specific tips that you may consider doing your matriculation at the University of Michigan and beyond. Tip number one, get involved on campus. Become a member of various student organizations and make social justice a central focus in the programming. That could include inviting faculty or other speakers to talk about their work to improve the social conditions of marginalized groups, or it could include organizing community service activities to help those within the local community. In essence, don't be afraid to use these campus groups as instruments to organize change. Get involved on campus. Tip number two, get involved off campus. In addition to student organizations on campus, there are often student leadership opportunities within the professional societies for many of our disciplines run for those physicians and use those platforms as a way to ensure that your professional societies incorporate social justice initiatives. If not you, then who? Get involved off campus. Tip number three, be an ally. An ally is a person who is willing to act with and for others to dismantle oppression and promote equity. Often this requires leveraging your privilege and your power on behalf of others. Be willing to have the uncomfortable conversations to disrupt the status quo. Be an ally. Tip number four, be uncomfortable or should I say be comfortable being uncomfortable. Step out of your comfort zone and connect with others with whom you might not normally interact. Invite them to your study groups. Invite them to a virtual dinner party or a happy hour, cocktail hour, at a future point in time, invite them to join you to attend the Ann Arbor Art Sphere. The point is to be purposeful about connecting with those who may be different from you. Be uncomfortable. And my final tip, tip number five, start to cultivate a spirit of philanthropy now. To be sure as a graduate student you may not have a lot of disposable income, but you may be able to donate some of your time and your talents to various causes to advance their social justice missions. Alternatively, every little bit helps so even small donations can be impactful. Maybe the cost of a couple of cups of coffee to an organization of your choosing every month. Either way, either of these approaches can help to develop a spirit of philanthropy that will serve you well now and will also follow you beyond your education. Start to cultivate a philanthropic spirit now. As I conclude, I'd like to offer a final point for your consideration. At the University of Michigan, the institutional motto reads, Arts, Knowledge, Truth. While on campus, don't be afraid to seek out the ever elusive truth that we all hope to one day understand. And along that journey, use the information that you gather to facilitate change and to move beyond passive activism. Thank you, welcome, and go Blue. Thank you Dr. Williams. We hope that you have enjoyed Fall Welcome. As this program ends, please be reminded to engage with campus units and organizations today during our virtual organization fair from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This will give you the opportunity to ask questions, obtain resources, and learn more about all the great offerings present at the University of Michigan. Information with links to the fair will be emailed to you directly and are also available on the Fall Welcome page. Thank you and welcome to Rackham.