Event Summary

Month Theme: Special Topics Relating to the Preparation to the Fall

Weekly Topic: Racial Justice and Community-University Partnerships

Presenter: Melissa Marley Bonnichsen, University of Notre Dame Director of Leadership Formation, Director of the Rev. Don McNeill C.S.C. Leadership Fellows Program

In response to the recent police brutality cases and the re-energized efforts surrounding racial justice, across the nation and locally, this week’s virtual ELF gave intentional space to discuss these concerns. The tragedies of violence, imbalances in systemic power and privilege surrounding race, and these new strides in organizing and protest impact all of us. For this session we focused on how racial justice affects our community-university engagement from a practitioner and personal lens. 

During the 2019–20 academic year the Center for Social Concerns has had a student learning goals theme of “acting justly” which largely has focused on racial justice and equity and how this work is bound to the Catholic Social Tradition. With the recent events we, as an institute, have been working to support students, community members, faculty, and staff with resources surrounding this work. Melissa Marley Bonnichsen helped represent the leadership side of the Center for Social Concerns and led discussion around navigating these resources.