Letter to Members from Ombudspersons
January 2, 2025 • By Joan Harrison and Linda Luz-Alterman
Dear Fellow MIP Members,
As your MIP ombuds, we have become aware of a growing need for a space at MIP where members can meet to reflect and talk about matters of concern to them or issues that have been on their mind.
We have attended numerous MIP gatherings this past year, which have given us the opportunity to reflect deeply on the sentient life of our institute. The Town Halls broke long-standing silence and opened up important conversations that had never occurred publicly at MIP. At the December and January Town Halls, members spoke candidly about power dynamics, feelings of exclusion, and other hurts experienced at MIP.
At a February Board meeting, we facilitated a conversation on the idea of an "ethics of care," where Board members and others present brought up matters that usually go unspoken in our gatherings. Similarly, at a Spring Faculty Development Seminar on ethics, a discussion about a complicated classroom vignette sparked a lively conversation about the complexity of teaching and how faculty might be better supported in their work.
In these different settings, we noticed that when given the opportunity to speak, members welcome the invitation and make good use of it. In doing so, they demonstrate trust in our community and implicitly invite others to join them. These observations support our belief that our community could benefit from a dedicated space for listening and processing our experiences, past and present, at MIP. By creating such a space, we can contribute to a more cohesive and responsive professional home for everyone.
To respond to this, we are offering something new at MIP in the New Year. It will be a Listening and Sharing Space where all are welcome, and where you can bring situations that weigh heavily upon you and that you have not been able to share elsewhere.
We invite you to join us in a four-session confidential group on Zoom, where we will work together to discover how such a space could help us reflect on the pain and concerns that we are currently carrying. This initiative represents a new effort to prioritize our commitment to creating and sustaining an "ethical community of care" in which every voice matters. We believe such a space can help us as individuals and foster a more connected and vibrant community.
Please join us in this new undertaking at MIP. The group will be limited to 8 participants in this initial endeavor, and we will meet for four sessions on a Tuesday night, every other week.
If you are interested, please reach out to one of us below, and we will be in touch with you.
Your Ombuds,
Joan Harrison and Linda Luz-Alterman
joanwharrison@gmail.com
luzalterman@gmail.com