St. Thomas seeks to clarify the intent of an optional workshop series offered through the Center for Well-Being that has been mischaracterized in several social media comments.
The series began in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis; several students sought ways to increase their allyship with their racially diverse peers, and this workshop series was started to help meet that desire. While this optional series (which is capped at 20 students per session) originally began at the requests of some of our white students, it has since evolved and students of various racial backgrounds participate.
The goal of this workshop is to provide opportunities for students to explore how life experiences impact how people engage with the work of racial justice. These expert-facilitated workshops support the well-being of our students and foster life-long tools to help them navigate successful relationships – personally, academically and professionally. For example, one focus area of these sessions encourages participants to approach difficult dialogues with curiosity and humility so that they can better understand others’ beliefs.
The university plans to continue holding these sessions but is revisiting the language used in the title and description to ensure it accurately aligns with the series content. The November session is being rescheduled and the series plans to resume in December.
