Dear students,
I am sure by now you are all wondering about how the emerging situation with COVID-19 might affect your lives and academic progress. I encourage you to stay tuned for UMass Community announcements and contact me or any of your professors with additional questions or concerns. For now, I would like to reiterate that
- On-campus instruction is moving online until April 3rd at which time the situation will be reassessed and further guidance will be sent out. Please look out for emails from faculty regarding instructions on your courses during these two weeks and beyond.
MA students on GAships will receive further information about duties during the period 3/23-4/3. Doctoral RAs should contact their faculty supervisors to discuss any assignments that involve physical presence on campus.
However, I would also like to take the opportunity to write about emotional, interpersonal, and mental health aspects of our current situation. Many people, including those in our community as well as our students, are having additional painful or difficult experiences. And so I'm writing about how we can emotionally take care of each other to help prevent the spread of pain and distress, as we are also washing our hands to help prevent the spread of germs.
Fears of coronavirus are increasing xenophobia and this is differentially effecting Asian Americans (and other groups as well). This means that people are hearing xenophobic comments all around them, and particularly on public transportation (see https://www.npr.org/2020/03/02/811363404/when-xenophobia-spreads-like-a-virus). For some in our community, this means that simply making it to campus or getting around the city is a hostile experience. These are good opportunities for us all to be using our awareness and skills around the ways that we respond to microaggressions, racist bullying, and discrimination.
Others in our community may have increased concerns about the spread of COVID-19 because either themselves or their loved ones have health or immune system concerns that put them at greater risk. This means that, sometimes, when we make light comments (often to quell our own anxiety) about not being worried because we are healthy, that this can be experienced as marginalizing to others. It is important for us all to recognize that we may not know the reasons why people are choosing to stay home or to take extra precautions and so we should think about ways that we can each be understanding and adaptable. And, if you are concerned about your health or the health of a loved one, you should feel comfortable making the decision to stay home or to limit contact in other ways.
For others in the community, the increased attention about an illness can increase health anxiety, generalized anxiety, and OCD. This can make conversations about COVID-19 particularly difficult and can become a preoccupation making it hard to focus on other aspects of work and life. If this is happening for you, there are a number of helpful tips and resources here (https://adaa.org/finding-help/coronavirus-anxiety-helpful-resources). One thing that can help is to put limits on the time spent hearing about COVID-19. We can help each other, by being sensitive to when and how we are talking about COVID and by asking others if they are in a place to talk about it if we are looking for places to talk.
Others in our community may really want to be talking about the impact of COVID-19 on them and may not know who they can talk to. This may be especially true for those who have friends or loved ones in communities being affected and may have increased worries about people they know. For them, the fears may be very real and very present. If that is happening for you, we know that social support can be helpful, so find people that you can talk to (when you want to and when it is helpful for you).
We will all get through this together, but as this is a community-based illness, it also requires a community-based response. Here are some things we can do:
- Be sensitive about the comments we make
- Pay attention that we are not increasing xenophobia
- Generally practice radical kindness
- Check in to see how others are doing
- If you want to talk about COVID-19, find supportive people to talk to who help you feel more supported and less anxious.
- Ask if it's ok to be talking about it
- Feel free to say - "I really am not up for talking about this right now." or "Can we change the subject?" if you are in a conversation that is making things more difficult for you
- Stay home when you need to
- Think about ways we can help others decrease xenophobia, anxiety, and misunderstandings.
Practice social distancing, wash your hands and stay healthy and alert!
Please take good care of yourself and the people around you,
Panayota Gounari
Panayota Gounari, Ph.D.
Chair and Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics
University of Massachusetts Boston
McCormack-4-457
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125
Phone: 1 (617) 2875765
Email: panagiota.gounari@umb.edu
Academia Profile: https://um-boston.academia.edu/PanayotaGounari
(my pronouns: she/her/hers/herself)
Comments