Webinars

WEBINAR REGISTRATION IS CLOSED. 

PLEASE NOTE: A confirmation email with connection instructions will be sent to you on Tuesday, April 23.

2 p.m. Eastern • 1 p.m. Central 
Noon Mountain • 11 a.m. Pacific 

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Traditional responses to crises use the filtered language of public figures trying to comfort us in times of grief, often with religious references and sympathy-card phrases. This genre of messages is often shorthanded as "Thoughts & Prayers" because of their use of reflective and religious language, sometimes off of a template used for this purpose. Dr. Stern suggests that these milquetoast, boilerplate responses should be re-thought and re-built from scratch. These communications, when done right, have the power to promote a sense of community (think: 9/11) and truly comfort those who we support. They also have the potential to clarify the "why" and the urgency of our DEIA work when crises disproportionately impact marginalized populations on our campus (think: George Floyd). Stern will discuss how the language of genuine feeling, not just "thoughts," can create community and increase inclusiveness and how speaking with moral clarity and humanity can create learning opportunities from crises.

Participants will understand ...

(1) ... how traditional "Thoughts & Prayers" messages fail to connect, comfort or create community for younger, secular audiences;

(2)... how the traditional, highly filtered, and cerebral speech of CEOs so common in crisis response messaging can come off canned or disingenuous rather than caring or empathetic;

(3) .... how "human" speech, with colloquial language, vulnerability, and emotion, with appropriate tone and recognizable voice, can connect a campus, facilitate community, provide real comfort and validate the feelings of listeners or readers rather than trying to allay feelings of grief or outrage as pathologic;

(4) ... why speaking and writing with moral clarity is ever more important in our current environment, and actually less risky than trying to speak with moral neutrality; participants will learn the difference between political neutrality (desirable) and moral neutrality (which Stern argues is not appropriate);

(5) ... how crisis response communication can help us in our DEIA work by providing a "why" for doing that work and a sense of urgency for how we approach it when crises are connected to racism, homophobia, xenophobia, or religious hate or oppression of women and how such communication can serve as a call to action rather than a call to suppress normal feelings of sorrow, anger, hurt or frustration.

Dr. Elliot Stern
President
Saddleback College, California

Dr. Stern began his tenure at Saddleback College in January 2019. As the eighth largest community college in California, he supports over 1,400 employees, and nearly 40,000 students each year. A Detroit native, Dr. Stern began his college education at Oakland Community College. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Pre-Medicine and D.O. from Michigan State University. Later he earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan School of Law and practiced as a medical litigator for seven years. Called to do something less adversarial with his career, Dr. Stern found an opportunity to teach an evening biology course at Shoreline Community College in Shoreline, Washington. It was then that he fell in love with teaching and the mission of community colleges.

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Registration includes:

• A copy of the presenter's PowerPoint.
• A recording of the live broadcast.