Post Election

Please be patient with one another during this time. Regardless of where you stand politically, we are all going to be colleagues, faculty, staff, students, and community on the other side of this.

We don’t always agree, nor should we. Healthy debate, critical discourse, and critical analysis are the hallmarks of an academic community. However, in the midst of that, we cannot afford to lose our humanity and forget that there is a difference between politics and fundamental human rights.

We want to acknowledge the impact the election may have on our students, faculty, staff, and extended community. The college has prepared some sessions to begin the healing and engage in moving together instead of apart.

Student Resources

Counseling Services

Counseling has prepared talking opportunities, gathering forums, and one-on-one services to support our students through the struggles and stress from the election.

If you have any questions about our BC’s counseling services, please feel free to contact the Counseling Center at 425.564.5747. Connect with a BC Mental Health Counselor or View Mental Health Resources. We look forward to supporting you!

Let’s Talk – Election Edition:

  • Who: Bellevue College Students
  • When: Tuesday, November 3rd at 1:00 p.m. & Wednesday, November 4th at 2 p.m.
  • Where: Virtually with BC counselors: https://counselingbc.doxy.me/welcome
  • What: Let’s Talk is a drop-in service for a short one-on-one, informal, and confidential consultation with a Bellevue College (BC) counselor. This is a first come first serve service and there is no need for an appointment. However, there might be a wait as the previous meeting wraps up. Use the link above to speak with a counselor about any concerns, study strategies, and problem-solving or learn more about the Counseling Center and other BC resources.

Virtual Quad Gatherings:

  • Who: Anyone from the BC community
  • When: Friday, November 6th at 1:30 p.m. and every other Friday (11/20 & 12/4)
  • Where: Teams Conference ID 745 120 622#
  • What: Join in casual and supportive conversations while playing games and having fun.
  • For technical issues, contact Kattie Dang (kattie.dang@bellevuecollege.edu) for assistance.

One-on-One Counseling Services:

  • Who: Bellevue College Students
  • When: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. & Tuesdays 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.
  • Where: Virtually via videoconferencing What: Free personal, career, and educational (e.g. motivation, focus, learning strategies with online learning, test anxiety) counseling services. Services are offered in Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and English. How to Make a Counseling Appointment? It is easy to make an appointment. Submit an online appointment request at: https://bellevuecollege-cc.titaniumhwc.com/schedule_an_appointment or call 425.564.5747.

Employee Resources

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

The EAP has developed resources and interactive sessions for employees who may be experiencing worry, stress, and anxiety tied to the Presidential Election.  EAP is also offering live, supportive post-election sessions starting Wednesday 11/4.  A Way Forward: Post Election Support from EAP is a 45-minute interactive session to share the emotional impact of the elections, as well as the actions employees may take to manage stress and the resources available to support their well-being. Register for one of the following sessions:

  • Who: Employees
  • When:
    Wednesday, November 4, 2020 @ 9:00am-9:45am — Register
    Thursday, November 5, 2020 @ 1:00pm-1:45pm — Register
    Friday, November 6, 2020 @ 2:00pm-2:45pm — Register
    Monday, November 9, 2020 @ 11:00am-11:45am — Register

If you or someone you know is struggling, EAP is a free service for our employees and can be reached at 1-877-313-4455 or online.

Employee Assistance Resource Guide

To support you, EAP offers the attached post-election resource guide.  Note, the resources listed in the guide is not an exhaustive one, but should help to provide you support and a way forward during the coming days. 

Faculty Commons

Instructors will experience interpersonal conflicts between students within classroom. Our Faculty Commons has prepared some trainings to prepare our instructors to prepare for such conversations.

  • Who: Faculty
  • What: Training examples include:
    • Micro-aggressions in our classrooms
    • Preparing for an inclusive online/remote
    • How to be an Antiracist
    • Language and Community
  • Where: Sign up now by clicking here

Community Resources

King County Resources

If you are experiencing a personal crisis after office hours, please contact the free King County 24-hour crisis line at 206-461-2222 (http://crisisclinic.org/find-help/crisis-line/) or the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-8255. If it is a life-threatening emergency, please call 911.

Town Hall Seattle (THS)

THS organizes virtual lectures and panels that highlight the work and experiences of experts across various topics. Keep in mind that some of these are politicized. All events cost up to $15 – typically free for people 22 and below, and $5 for most others. While this cost can be prohibitive, hopefully there can be a way for you and/or your students can take advantage as part of classes and civic education. HS organizes virtual lectures and panels that highlight the work and experiences of experts across various topics. Keep in mind that some of these are politicized.

All events cost up to $15 – typically free for people 22 and below, and $5 for most others. While this cost can be prohibitive, hopefully there can be a way for you and/or your students can take advantage as part of classes and civic education.

Final Civic Cocktail of 2020

  • Who: Former Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna (Republican), a TBA Democrat, Pastor Don Mackenzie and Imam Jamal Rahman from the Interfaith Amigos.
  • When: November 4th at 6pm
  • Where: Virtually via this link: Final Civic Cocktail of 2020
  • What: Discussion of the election results from the previous night. Will there be a clear mandate? Where do the parties go from here? How might they work together after this long election season? These men come from different faiths but work together in friendship and goodwill in the community. Join us for this warm conversation as a way to start your holiday season.

 How to Bring America Together Again

  • Who: Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett
  • When: November 7th at 2PM
  • Where: Virtually via this link: How to Bring America Together Again
  • What:  Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism—Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But eminent humanist Robert D. Putnam declares that we’ve been here before, and with brilliant analysis, provides thoughts on how we might steer away from our current “worst of times” trajectory. Putnam joins us in a livestreamed conversation with co-author Shaylyn Romney Garrett to share an overview of more than a century of history, combined with unmatched analysis and storytelling. Together they draw on their book The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, and take us from the Gilded Age of the late 1800s when America was highly individualistic, through the early twentieth century when America became more cooperative, to the 1960s when that trend reversed again. At a moment when many Americans feel more divided than perhaps ever before, Putnam offers inspiring lessons from history that may put us on the path to becoming a society once again based on community.

Become America

  • Who: Bushwick Book Club
  • When: November 14th at 7:30PM
  • Where: Virtually via this link: Become America
  • What: (Concert and Civics): Not your run-of-the-mill book club, Bushwick shows offer a special interaction between audiences and musicians. Bushwick performers present their own original songs inspired by the show’s featured book. This concert features music inspired by Eric Liu’s Become America. Friend of Town Hall Eric Liu wrote the gospel for engaged citizenry—and now it’s time for the choir to sing! In the collection of essays, Liu challenges Americans to love the nation they have by becoming the nation they want. Don’t miss this inspired performance by artists of all ages.

 Donald Trump, Race, and the Crisis for America

  • Who: UW Professor Christopher Sebastian Parker and communications expert Kenan Block
  • When: November 17th at 7:30PM
  • Where: Virtually via this link:  Donald Trump, Race, and the Crisis for America
  • What:  In the midst of a global pandemic, continuing racial injustice, and near economic collapse, he believes the country is led by a chief executive who only makes matters worse. Parker joins us for a livestreamed conversation with media and communications expert Kenan Block to dive deeper into Parker’s analysis of the current moment. A political scientist and acclaimed author, Parker draws on his expertise in public opinion and social science to explore the current and future of race and race relations, social justice, and racial inequality writ large, post-election. With support from his upcoming book, The Great White Hope: Donald Trump, Race, and the Crisis of America, he lays out the dire situation—and elaborates upon a possible solution.

 How Charts Lie and Influence Our Perception of the Truth

  • Who: Leading data visualization expert Alberto Cairo
  • When: November 20th at 6PM
  • Where: Virtually via this link:  How Charts Lie and Influence Our Perception of the Truth
  • What: We’ve all seen charts come through our social media feeds or on the news. More than ever, in a time when conversations are increasingly driven by numbers—for example, in relation to the COVID pandemic—charts are ostensibly used to communicate essential information. But how much can we trust those charts? And how do they influence our perception of truth? Leading data visualization expert Alberto Cairo joins us in this livestreamed primer, introducing a core competency on analyzing charts, diagrams, and infographics. He argues that, to be informed citizens, we must all be able to decode and use the visual information that politicians, journalists, and even our employers present us with every day. Considering the decoding of charts an essential new literacy in our data-driven world, he examines contemporary examples ranging from election result infographics to global GDP maps, box office record charts—and even COVID graphics—to share the positives and negatives of relaying data visually.

 How to Stop an Authoritarian

  • Who: Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat and journalist Virginia Heffernan
  • When: December 2nd at 6PM
  • Where: Virtually via this link: How to Stop an Authoritarian
  • What: They promise law and order, then legitimize lawbreaking. They use masculinity as a symbol of strength and political weapon. They use propaganda, corruption, and violence to stay in power. Ours is the age of authoritarian rulers, says historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and modern authoritarian leaders all pull from the same “strongman” playbook. In this livestreamed presentation, Ben-Ghiat joins us in conversation with journalist Virginia Heffernan to share the expertise that enables her to predict with uncanny accuracy the recent experience in America. With lessons from her book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, Ben-Ghiat traces the recent history of authoritarianism: from Vladimir Putin and Mobutu Sese Seko’s kleptocracies, to Augusto Pinochet’s torture sites, from Benito Mussolini and Muammar Gaddafi’s systems of sexual exploitation, to Silvio Berlusconi and Donald Trump’s relenteless misinformation. She submits that no other type of leader is so transparent about prioritizing self-interest over the public good, and how their rule, far from ensuring stability, is marked by destructive chaos. Tune in for this timely analysis with an expert on authoritarian leaders, fascism, and propaganda—and gain insight into how these strongmen can be undone.

The Black Experience in Seattle

  • Who: Seattle Human Rights Commission
  • When: December 10th at 6PM
  • Where: Virtually via this link: The Black Experience in Seattle
  • What: For many, comfort lies in the privileges they experience, the powers they exercise, and the convenience of not being in a group of “those others.” We live in a country that was founded on equality for some and the promise of equality for others. We live in a country that has never lived up to the concept and manifestation of freedom and justice for all. In the midst of ecological crisis, a global pandemic, a recession, and a racial justice uprising, we are all going through an awakening. The Seattle Human Rights Commission invites us to a panel discussion on the Black experience in Seattle, confronting that we exist in a country, state, county, and city that fails to ensure that all of us have equitable and equal access to our human rights. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us that “injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.” Audre Lord recognizes that “there is no single issue struggle.” Join this vital and urgent conversation about how we are not free and liberated until all peoples are free and liberated—and how collective liberation cannot come in part, but must come intersectionality and all at once.

What Freedom Means & How We Get There

  • Who: Marc Lamont Hill
  • When: December 15th at 6PM
  • Where: Virtually via this link: What Freedom Means & How We Get There
  • What: The uprising of 2020 marked a new phase in the unfolding Movement for Black lives. The brutal killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, and countless other injustices large and small, were the match that lit the spark of the largest protest movement in US history, an historic uprising against racism and the politics of disposability that the COVID-19 pandemic lays bare. Journalist and author Marc Lamont Hill joins us in this livestreamed presentation to share from his timely book We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest & Possibility. With new interviews and two new essays, Hill critically examines the “pre-existing conditions” that have led us to this moment of crisis and upheaval, guiding us through the perils and possibilities, and helping us imagine an abolitionist future. He provides a critical intersectional analysis of what got us to the present moment, and considers how we get out. In the midst of death and suffering, Hill presents a charge for students, organizers, activists, and leaders. He urges us to figure out what freedom really means—and how we can take steps to get there.

Thriving Strategies

  • Don’t expect yourself or anyone else to be their “old self” and perform at 100% (Link to material)
    • Give yourself grace/the benefit of the doubt. Show yourself the same empathy and compassion you give to others. Allow yourself to give less than 100%, and be forgiving of your own mistakes and errors. Model this for your team: be transparent and talk about your own less-than-100% performance, discussing mistakes that you’ve made and inviting your team to help you solve the problem.
    • Give others grace/the benefit of the doubt. Let your team know that it’s OK to give less than 100%. When others perform at less than 100%, show compassion and understanding and offer support: you might say something like “I understand you’re overwhelmed. I’m so sorry. How can I/we help?” Be forgiving and tolerant of mistakes: use a kind, gentle tone and focus on problem-solving and providing support (instead of assigning blame). Discussing problems and mistakes with understanding and curiosity fosters the psychological safety of your team.
  • Be honest and authentic with your team. Tell them of your struggles. Take a risk and be vulnerable, and know that your willingness to take this risk as the manager of the team signals that it’s safe for them to take risks and be honest as well. Give them room to express concern for you. Remember that much of our lives is invisible to each other.
  • Create a meeting space where team members can vent and share with each other how they’re doing. It could be in your 1:1s and/or in a team meeting. Experiment to see what works best.
  • Box Breathing: https://www.healthline.com/health/box-breathing
  • Election Stress Getting to You? 4 Ways to Keep Calm: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/26/927340197/election-stress-getting-to-you-4-ways-to-keep-calm

Last Updated November 9, 2020