From the FWC Executive Committee
Hello everyone,
These aren't unprecedented times, but they are intense. It's probably as challenging for me as it is for you to juggle the news and personal impacts with the normally intense pace of a new semester. I guess the one comfort is that most people who are paying attention are feeling this.
We as the FWC will continue to gather and to promote local actions because, as Chris Begley writes in the excellent collection, Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis, edited by Kelly Hayes, community will save us.
"Looking at past catastrophes, we see that people survive as a community, not individuals. It will be social and political skills that allow us to make it through."
One of my best friends lives in Minneapolis, and her instruction to me was, "Every other city should get ready. Set up systems." So while I am not trying to be alarmist, I am trying to manage fear and anxiety with information (such an academic response!)
For sightings on campus, we are instructed to call DPS at: (203) 254-4090; it might be a good idea to put this number in your phone.
I am trying to get up to speed on statewide monitoring efforts, and I believe that Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA) New Haven is now running a statewide ICE hotline: 475-323-9413
For a report to the hotline, or after taking information from someone who was a witness, many orgainzations are asking for information organized with the acronym SALUTE.
S - Size/Strength: Number of agents, officers, or vehicles present.
A - Actions/Activity: What are they doing? (e.g., questioning people, searching a vehicle).
L - Location/Direction: Precise address, intersection, or direction of travel.
U - Uniform/Clothes: What agency is listed on their clothing?
T - Time & Date: The exact time and date of the observation.
E - Equipment/Weapons: Vehicles, makes/models, weapons, or tools (e.g., batons, zip ties).
- You have the right to record ICE from a reasonable distance
- Use a passcode to unlock your phone, not Face ID
- A warrant is needed to seize your device.
Every act of building community is weaving a thread in our safety net. Join our Connecticut AAUP/AFT network next Wednesday online for statewide legislation we're developing to promote and protect academic freedom at all levels, K-12 to college (see below). And Join us after the GF on Friday for some community building, where we'll talk about the history of our Memo of Understanding (MOU), which forms the terms in our contracts and which is being negotiated this spring with the Faculty Salary Committee representing us. There will be a quiz show for and prizes, including a category for faculty members who've arrived in 2019 or after.
And there will be free whistles, should you need one. Abolish ICE.
All the best,
Sonya for the FWC Executive Committee (indigomission@gmail.com)
Here are some online national trainings offered by various organizations and compiled by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg from Life is a Sacred Text, should you want to attend one:
- 1/28 7pm ET ICE watch and community defense
- 1/29 7pm ET Noncooperation 101 - some key stuff in fighting authoritarianism, by an org that includes Maria Stephan, Erica Chenoweth's collaborator
- 2/4 9:30am ET Bystander training/ best practices for early childhood educators and caregivers
- 2/5 4:30pm Bystander training / best practices for early childhood educators and caregivers
- 2/6 4pm ET Community defender training focusing on parents' & kids' rights in arrest and detention.
- 2/10 12pm ET Bystander training on responding to antiblack police violence (hasn't stopped!)
- 2/25 3pm ET Bystander know your rights training
- Various dates and times (including for youth!) bystander intervention to support the im/migrant community
- Various trainings in the 1:1, a key piece of organizing, here.
Local and State Events
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Jan. 27: 6 pm
Stand in Solidarity: Attend a vigil for victims of I.C.E. brutality, Tuesday Jan 27, 6 - 7 pm at First Church, 148 Beach Rd. Fairfield. Let's gather together as a community to support our immigrant and refugee neighbors and bear witness to the truth.
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Jan. 30: 5 pm After the GF
Join us for an FWC meeting focused on our activist history and our fights for the terms in the Memo of Understanding, including the many changes we've seen in health benefits. We'll run a Quiz Show with prizes!
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Feb. 4: 5 pm
Academic Freedom in Connecticut: Our AAUP/AFT chapter network in CT has put together this important webinar about the state of academic freedom in our state as well as Academic Freedom legislation in other states. Our network is drafting Academic Freedom legislation for CT.
Register Here
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We promote faculty welfare, broadly defined, through chapter programs and activities designed to advance academic freedom, advance the economic and professional status of the faculty, encourage faculty participation in governance, and inform the community about AAUP standards and policy statements to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.
