The first spring meeting of Teaching and Researching about Disaster Recovery in the Student Services Center was held on Feb. 19.

The conference is a series of ongoing conversations which help students and professors know more about the “the circumstances that impact teaching and researching related to recovery after the Camp Fire,” according to the description of the meeting. 

The meeting was conducted by Director of Civic Engagement Ann Schulte and Camp Fire Campus and Community Liaison Megan Kurtz. 

“The results of our meeting was to come up with a guideline of ethical practice for working in posttrauma types of conditions,” Schulte said. 

There had been prior meetings relating to teaching and researching disaster recovery last year, however, “there was a request to continue to meet this year.”

During the conference, there were discussions open to the professors and students about why it is important to know about disaster recovery in your school, ways students and professors can volunteer and different anecdotes from professors’ and students’ perspectives of the Camp Fire in November of 2018. 

The Camp Fire was one of California’s deadliest wildfires which left 85 casualties and burned more than 150,000 acres of land. 

“We had a group do a survey about everyone who had been involved in any tragedy like this and it’s amazing… one of the things that was foremost requested by everyone… is someone you can call because when stuff goes to hell because of a disaster… you want to know who to talk to,” Meriam Library Dean Patrick Newell said. 

During the conference, there were anecdotes about schools and organizations that helped during the Camp Fire, thus resulting in many volunteer opportunities.

However, almost 16 months since the Camp Fire occurred, there are still ways in which students and professors can contribute to this cause.

“There are so many opportunities to volunteer. If you want Chico State to organize it, it’s going to be looking at some of the areas like CAVE…,” Kurtz said. 

There is a database if you are interested in Camp Firevolunteer work. 

If you want to know more, see https://firedatabase.csuchico.edu/. 

The next Teaching and Researching about Disaster Recovery meeting will be held in SSC 122 on March 25 at 12p.m.. 

Keyla De Los Santos can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @keyladls