February is Ramadan, Lunar New Year, Ash Wednesday and More: A Guide to Respectful Inclusion

Hello all,

In addition to February's role in reminding us to celebrate and learn more about Black History, we also get to celebrate several other special days and seasons.

We have Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, and President's Day. We also have Lunar New Year (Year of the Fire Horse), Ramadan, Mardi Gras, and Ash Wednesday among many others.

This week's focus is on acknowledging holidays, events, and traditions in a respectful manner. Ignoring special holidays and traditions might seem easier when we don't know a lot about them, but that ignores important parts of our colleagues' lives. So we need to educate ourselves, and then let those who are celebrating take the lead in how or if they want our participation or support.

From a 2024 Forbes article, this paragraph really sums up the essence of how to be respectful: Avoid Appropriation; Instead Practice Appreciation

"If you choose to participate in others’ cultural celebrations in an attempt to learn and educate, be sure to practice appreciation of that culture and avoid appropriation. Cultural appropriation is defined as taking something with high cultural importance in another’s culture and using it for your personal gain or enjoyment. When learning about other cultures, it’s important to avoid reinforcing stereotypes and to steer clear of the use of sacred symbols or practices if you don't have proper context or authorization."

From Karen Catlin's Better Allies newsletter on how to Support coworkers during Ramadan:

"The holy month of Ramadan begins on February 17th this year. I appreciated reading Understanding Ramadan and Supporting Your Muslim Colleagues by Yusuf Zakir, chief talent and inclusion officer at Davis Wright Tremaine. He explains that during Ramadan, most Muslims fast from dawn to dusk (including not drinking water), are more dedicated to prayer, increase their charitable giving and community service, and spend more time with family and members of the community at their place of worship.

Here’s Zakir’s advice for supporting coworkers during this time:

• Acknowledge the month’s significance by wishing them Ramadan Mubarak (have a happy Ramadan) or Ramadan Kareem (have a blessed Ramadan).
• Understand how busy they may be, working their regular hours while fasting and then participating in prayers and festivities in the evening.
• Be empathetic of the stress and uncertainty many are feeling, given humanitarian crises and political rhetoric targeting Muslim and other minority communities.
• Encourage them to take off Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the 30 days of Ramadan and is commonly considered the most widely celebrated holiday for Muslims worldwide. You can also wish them Eid Mubarak (have a happy Eid)."

We can make Zakir's advice universal by taking the following steps with all our colleagues.

1. Acknowledge their traditions.
2. Appreciate the extra effort, time, and stress even welcome traditions add to our lives (think of your own traditions—wonderful and stressful).
3. Be empathetic and understanding.

All the best,
Holly

The Momentum Killer: Avoiding Daily Interuptions

Hello all,

Ever get interrupted? Find yourself distracted...and not by social media but by other tangential work tasks? If you're anything like me (and I know I am...) this is a daily issue.

And it really matters.
According to research and anecdotal info alike, posted in the human resources blog of U.C. Berkeley The Impact of Interruptions:

"The impact of interruptions cannot be overstated. They kill our momentum. When we start again on our task, we can’t simply pick up where we left off, we have to reorient ourselves, re-immerse, and re-gain our momentum. The length of our recovery time depends on the complexity of our task; ranging anywhere from 8 minutes for simpler tasks to 25 minutes for more complex ones."

So what can we do about it?
Here are some suggestions if the interruptions come from people looking to you for answers. Stopping Interruptions from taking over your day from the Assist newsletter:

• Create systems so people can find answers without you. If you keep answering the same questions, that knowledge needs a home outside your head.
• Build resources your team can check before they reach for you. Start with asynchronous documentation:
• Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for recurring tasks
• FAQ documents for common questions
• Dashboards that show progress and key metrics
• A shared knowledge base or company wiki where information lives

When people know where to look, they stop interrupting you by default.

Ok, but what if the interruptions come from your own distractibility, as many of mine do? Try methods such as:

• Clearing clutter away from your workspace
• Turning off notifications
• Making a task list that works with your peak productivity times
• Short stretch and movement breaks to let your brain refocus without starting a different task

And share with the list... what works for you?

Wishing you all the best, and a less distracted day,
Holly

Black History as Living Legacy

Hello all,

February is Black History Month and there is a lot to celebrate in Black History—and important contributions in the now.

Chancellor King and the SUNY Trustees published a statement that you can read online, including this excerpt:

"The history of African Americans is the history of America. It is a history of struggles and successes, of unspeakable injustice and joyous triumph, of the fight for freedom and equality, and of the quest to build a truly just nation where all can thrive.

Access to education is a foundational necessity if we are to learn the lessons of the past and take the steps necessary to build a society that empowers and uplifts us all. That is core to SUNY's mission, and it is enshrined in our history. Our founding statute directs us: ‘to provide to the people of New York educational services of the highest quality, with the broadest possible access, fully representative of all segments of the population.'"

I also want to share a wonderful blog post with you from an American Library Association library newsletter Towards Inclusive Excellence, that I receive titled Black History as Living Legacy: Education, Story, and Joy.

You'll find an insightful short essay from the author Dr. Marlee Bunch who is according to the blog post "an interdisciplinary educator, author, researcher, and lifelong learner. Her research examines the oral histories of Black female educators in Hattiesburg, Mississippi who taught between 1954 and 1971."

The essay concludes with a list of recommended readings and resources that I'm sure you will find useful.

What's happening on your campuses to celebrate Black History Month? Share the joy by posting those celebrations to this list so you can inspire others.

All the best,
Holly

Shifting Perceptions: Small Language Changes Can Make a Big Impact

Hello all,

Language matters! The words we choose have substantial influence over how information and actions are understood by others. Saying something is red when it's clearly green can generate confusion or worse. Calling something deviant when it's simply an alternative can hinder use. And language usage and meanings shift through time, so what was once acceptable or reasonable can become problematic.

I know we are all working on improving the digital accessibility of resources on our campus, and perhaps we are thinking we have little time for other considerations—but I want to highlight a step SUNY Plattsburgh just took to make another change. In the process of converting more fillable documents into smarter, contextual, and auto-routed e-forms, the college decided to update the language as well.

This is part of the campus announcement email from our Academic Provost's Office: "Moving toward an electronic solution provides the opportunity to reconsider the process and to ensure that clear and inclusive language is used. Hence the title of the Deviation Form has been updated to be the Exception Request Form. This language has a more positive perspective and communicates a higher level of support. The ‘form’ continues to be an electronic approval process and is accessed from the Registration Dates & Forms page managed by the Registrar’s Office."

A simple change, and one that has the power to shift perceptions.

If you are involved in the technical aspects of accessibility, or are responsible for updating information to be more fully compliant and have influence on the content as well, this is a good opportunity to do more than one thing at a time!

All the best,
Holly

Beyond the Numbers: Supporting Women and Families in Higher Ed

Hello all,

Our economy is not getting better for women and our families—and it might be getting worse. That's the big takeaway from recent labor reports and organizational analysis.

Women Made Up Nearly All The Job Losses Last Month. Here’s Why is a January 14, 2026 newsletter article by Holly Corbett for Forbes.

"A thriving economy is partly reflected by a labor force that represents the demographics of our population. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report shows some striking disparities: 91,000 women left the labor force last month, compared to 10,000 men who joined the labor force last month. If we zoom out to look at all of 2025, men’s labor force size grew by 572,000, while women’s grew by only 184,000. That means men joined the labor market at a rate three times greater than women."

There are many reasons behind the growing gender divide in the labor market. Here are some, but not all, of the factors contributing to this trend.

Lack Of Other Support Structures And Affordable Childcare

Women didn’t suddenly stop wanting to work; they were forced out, says Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Moms First. She believes this isn’t a personal problem, but rather it’s a business problem and a policy failure. One solution is to treat child care like an economic imperative.

Job Losses In Sectors Where Women Are Highly Represented

Tucker (Jasmine Tucker, vice president for research at the National Women’s Law Center) points to a broader rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and cuts to federal jobs as a significant driver of fewer women in the workforce in 2025. Many federal positions, known for better pay equity and benefits, are being cut—jobs where women and Black women are highly represented.

More Companies Are Scaling Back Programs That Benefit Women

The 2025 Women in the Workplace annual report, the largest study of corporate women in America, finds that women are getting less support in the workplace and fewer opportunities for advancement.

Women Are Penalized More For Working Remotely

Research shows remote work hurts women’s chances of being promoted more than it does men’s. Remote work became the norm for a much larger segment of the workforce after the pandemic, and it contributed to a record for women’s labor force participation by 2023. Yet increasing return-to-office mandates in 2024 and 2025 may be disproportionately impacting women. This is due to the fact that the majority of caregiving responsibilities are still shouldered by women, as well as gender biases and the motherhood penalty.

“2025 has been a tumultuous year for companies, not just for employees,” says Thomas. (Rachel Thomas, co-founder and CEO of LeanIn.org) “The economy is changing quickly, AI is disrupting things, companies are trying to respond to a changing legal landscape. There is a lot going on, but we’re at an important crossroads when it comes to women’s progress. My hope is that leaders read this, see it as a wakeup call, and understand that doubling down on women’s career advancement is the only thing to do.”

So, what can we do in SUNY?

Certainly we can make sure that our organizations don't exacerbate these trends, that our educational programming improves awareness of the trends, and that our support mechanisms work to help mitigate these impacts. Whether it's providing counseling, career support, retooling educationally, flexible work schedules, campus food pantries, or community resource referrals—do what you can.

As we start out our spring semesters, let's keep women and families on our minds, and work towards better outcomes for everyone in this economy.

All the best,
Holly