SEAHO Report - Winter 2018 - 43

SEAHO Features

getting accustomed to graduate work, but it is very beneficial in the long run. Set appropriate boundaries in
your GA. Although you will inevitably be required to be flexible in your schedule, it is important to remember
you are a person and a student first. Seek a work-life balance, which you will often hear discussed but that you
will have to learn on your own. Challenge yourself by getting involved outside of your specific role. Join a
committee, run for a position in a professional association, or help advise a student organization. You may find
it hard to avoid, but don't make your life about your work. Finally, take time for yourself to relax and rebuild,
you can't pour from an empty cup.

Unpacking our Student Affairs Suitcase: Reexamining the
Relationship Between Racial Justice & Residence Life
By Demarcus Merritt, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

In mid-January, the Office of Housing and Residence Life (HRL) at the University of North Carolina
Greensboro (UNCG) collaborated with campus partners to co-host a live-stream of The Presidential Symposium
on Racial Justice in Higher Education webinar. The professional development opportunity was sponsored by
the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center, the American College Personnel Association
(ACPA), and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). It featured a panel of renowned
speakers:
* Dr. Stephen John Quaye (Miami University / ACPA President)
* Dr. Lori Patton Davis (Indiana University / ASHE President)
* Dr. Shaun R. Harper (University of Southern California / ASHE Past President)
These scholar activists presented a four-hour session that included educational and reflective engagement
exercises and a discussion centered around the following concepts:
* Taking Stock and Making Sense of Racist Incidents on Campuses
* Self-Care in Periods of Racial Stress and Recovery from Racial Battles
* The Collective Impact of Racial Justice
* Coalition-Building for Racial Justice
UNCG was listed as one of over 120 registered participating institutions and organizations. The institution's 26
event participants included professional and graduate student representatives from the Office of Intercultural
Engagement, Office of Accessibility Resources and Services, the Higher Education Student Association, and the
School of Education. HRL led the way to extend the learning space by hosting active social media engagement
throughout the session by monitoring and responding to Twitter posted statements and questions that included
their official event hashtag of #UNCGRacialJustice. After the conclusion of event, there was strong advocacy
for the need of the shared space to be continued in the immediate future to further engage in dialogue about the
knowledge and call to action shared during the event but more specifically to collectively discuss methods for
individual to campus-wide application of the learning to UNCG.
On the next few weeks, I engaged in a continual process to dissect, define, and digest the acquired learning.
Although it has been a rather exhaustive exercise, it felt necessary to repeat that process for my holistic health
and development as a Black man and as a Black professional in our higher education field. One of the key
perspectives voiced by Dr. Harper was the need for Higher Education to increase the intentionality and exposure
about the study of our profession in regards to what is being learned about racism and what it takes to do the
work for racial equality in Master and Doctoral level classes. In combing through various social media posts
and having additional conversation about that perspective, it seems that race and racism are not intentionally
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SEAHO Report Winter 2018

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