Gaza: A Time for Reflection, Dialogue, and Care
August 12, 2025
Dear Chaffey Community,
Last week, we began our year together with the Convocation theme, 鈥淪tability through the Storm.鈥� During this first week, our student leaders shared their experiences and how they faced them, with our help. At 51萝莉, we want our students to have a sense of belonging and to know all of us are here to support them.
At the same time, a group of faculty and staff sent out a campus email, not only voicing their deep concerns about the suffering and human atrocities taking place in Gaza but also to offer their support to any impacted Chaffey employee. Other employee email communications expressed support for those suffering in Gaza while also sharing anxieties about loved ones in Israel. In public and private conversations, our community has shared personal experiences, and they are trying to find ways to meaningfully discuss the enormity of all of this with colleagues and our students.
We have already met with the authors of the letter to engage in dialogue and to hear their perspectives. Many ideas were shared that included increasing awareness, expanding learning opportunities, developing additional faculty/staff advocacy groups, and creating resources and programming for the entire campus community. We also have met with the Academic Senate President and look forward to working with the Senate and campus advocates to support our community.
By not sending out an official District communication until now, we understand that our silence may have led some to believe that the College community is not impacted by what is happening or that we do not care about this crisis. We apologize for this. The devastation is staggering. There is no single email that can express how much we care, nor ease the weight so many of you carry. There are no words that do justice to the full complexity of this crisis. We are committed to doing more, and we will.
Our immediate focus is to support our community. At Chaffey, we seek to unify. We strive to find decency in our interactions through open and respectful dialogue, and in doing so, we hope to find common ground. We are confident we can do this together.
Finally, the College has received multiple inquiries about the permissible use of District email. Please know that we do not feel that it is the appropriate time to address that question in this email. We will send a separate communication on those matters in the near future.
Respectfully,
Henry D. Shannon, Ph.D.
Superintendent/President
Michael McClellan, Ed.D.
Associate Superintendent of Instruction and Institutional Effectiveness
Alisha Rosas
Associate Superintendent of Student Services and Strategic Communications
Lisa Bailey
Associate Superintendent of Business Services and Economic Development
Troy Ament
Associate Superintendent of Administrative Services and Emergency Operations
