Pat standing beneath the Norlin Charge at the Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE). CU photo by Glenn Asakawa.
Everyone stands in respect when a jury enters a courtroom to deliver a verdict.
I spent a large portion of my career in courtrooms, and I’ve stood in respect when the jury rendered a verdict in my cases, even when the verdict was against my clients.
The jurors have earned that respect, no matter what their verdict is, because they have performed an arduous task. It’s a tremendous responsibility to represent your fellow citizens in judgment of another person, and, contrary to how it sometimes appears from afar, a juror’s decision is always hard.
Last week, a jury determined that a former police officer was guilty of murdering George Floyd. In that moment, the jurors saw Mr. Floyd, said that his life mattered, and held the former officer accountable for a crime not just against Mr. Floyd but against the community in which he lived.
A jury’s verdict represents a judgment about something that occurred in the past, and juries are never asked to predict the future. So, while it’s fair to say that the jury’s verdict will send a message, it doesn’t mean that society has fundamentally changed since Mr. Floyd’s death, and since we learned about the deaths of Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo and others during the trial and after the jury rendered its verdict.
I’ve asked myself what I can take away from these past weeks.
Stepping back from the criminal justice system, I again watched the video of Mr. Floyd’s last minutes. When I saw the video of the officer kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck, as he struggled for his life and said he couldn’t breathe, it was clear to me the officer didn’t recognize Mr. Floyd as a human being. He failed to show any empathy.
I could have said that the officer failed to show any respect for Mr. Floyd. That would also be true, but I don’t think respect is enough in unkind times. It takes something more.
I’m asking all of you to help build a culture within SRS and CU Boulder that emphasizes empathy and kindness.
“Empathy is the ability we have to notice someone in pain and to feel some part of that pain.”* When we share in each other’s experience and picture their feelings, which include not just pain but joy, sorrow, fear, and love, “we’re also able to imagine the consequences of actions not yet taken, and we can be motivated in our choices by the imagined feelings of the people those actions will affect.”
In other words, when we have empathy, we’ll make wiser decisions and have a more just, equitable, and inclusive campus. Our best tool in building empathy is actively listening, particularly to those whose voices are marginalized. “If you seek out those voices who have been actively silenced and listen to and believe what they have to say, you’ll be far less likely to make a mistake that stops you from empathizing.”
I’m trying to learn to be a better listener and reflecting on how my decisions impact others in ways that I didn’t anticipate because I couldn’t empathize better. I feel lucky to be surrounded by talented SRS leaders who demonstrate empathy and whom I learn from every day.
One of these empathetic leaders is Chief Human Resource Officer Katherine Erwin, who will retire at the end of June. Katherine has served the CU Boulder campus for 27 years, beginning as a Norlin Library instructor in 1991 and ultimately serving for five years in her current role. Please read about her journey at CU Boulder in this month’s Superhero profile. Katherine is a remarkable person who leads with skill and empathy.
As I write, I know being empathetic won’t cure all of our problems. We will have setbacks. We won’t be able to avoid hard decisions. But I hope that listening to each other, seeking to be kind, and trying to understand each other’s perspectives openly will help us build trust and make better choices about the campus we want to become. I’m excited and hopeful for our future.
Thank you for all you’ve done this year. I can’t adequately express how much I appreciate it.
Pat
*All quotes from author Henry James Garrett’s, “This Book Will Make You Kinder: An Empathy Handbook”