Letter from the institute directorate and staff

June 5, 2020

Dear Stem Cell Institute Community:

In this difficult time when we are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and building resumption, our way of learning, conducting research and managing the Institute has changed significantly as we try to keep up with this ever-changing volatile environment and world. The directors and staff of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine ask you to respect the wishes of the Floyd family today and take a breath for peace, for justice, to help heal our country and for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

Stanford is a community of respect, respect for ourselves and for each other. We are a community that cares for each other and that supports one another. Preventing racial injustice and inequality in our community is a responsibility that we all share, one that starts within each one of us. It’s not just a peoples of color issue and we cannot pretend it’s not an issue. It’s on all of us to promote a culture of respect, to do the right thing and to support the people around us.

We all need to communicate better and more often. Talk with your co-workers, students and faculty and listen. Be there for each other. Talk about your experiences, ask questions, and make a sincere effort to understand each other’s perspectives. Help each other to understand these perspectives, and how we each want to be viewed by others. Help each other to think about the words we use. WORDS MATTER. If you see inequalities or hear injustices, call them out, don’t let that be part of our culture. Most importantly, don’t be a bystander. If you see something, say something, stand up and intervene.

The Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine is our home away from home, and our colleagues are our family. It’s not you and me. It’s not them against us. It is us. What happens here affects us all, so lead by example. It is on us to create the relationships and the community we want here at Stanford and in our Institute. Everyone should feel welcome and safe in their home away from home and community.

In these difficult moments, this is a time to listen attentively, to accept the discomfort of our own deficiencies, and to have productive and long-lasting conversations which will impact how we move forward. To this end, please attend the Vigil for Black Lives TODAY at 5PM. The event will be  livestreamed.

The Institute is committed to align our actions around compassion and intention to better help the University and School of Medicine achieve their mission, and to ensure long-term realignment continues to reshape these principles: Justice, Equity, Peace, Respect, and Empathy. We intend to follow the momentum generated by the tragic events of the past weeks to assemble a committee of faculty, staff, postdocs and students to share our thoughts about equality for all, and to plan for reform in the way we conduct our processes.

In a separate letter, Dr. Weissman requests that we start our own web of communications, which will result in a Town Hall. Thank you in advance for participating in this, and for carrying the conversation forward with a commitment to change.

Sincerely,

Institute Directors and Staff