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| Rutgers Uniting to Demand Sanctuary |
Anyone that wants to follow up with raising this question with Rider University - contact bwitanek@igc.org
UPDATE February 15, 2017
President Dell Omo wrote a lengthy letter to the campus 5 days after this article was first published and almost 3 weeks after the enactment of the travel ban. While it contained the expected Kumbaya - the poignant sentence that sums up Rider's position is:"While we must comply with federal requirements on immigration policies and adhere to all applicable law, we will work to maintain the privacy of our students and employees, and continue to admit students and hire faculty and staff without discrimination."
This is far short from what can be done - the AAUP nationally has endorsed the concept of "sanctuary campuses" which includes:
When Trump signed the legally questionable travel ban orders trying to keep people from 7 countries from traveling to the US – initially including current VISA holders – it touched off a firestorm of protests by 10s of 1000s at airports and also on college campuses. As a response – there has been a call on many campuses including Rutgers University for Sanctuary – which means for those colleges to refuse to cooperate with repressive measures of government targeting foreign nationals and immigrants. Campuses have for years been providing data to the federal government and searching their student data bases for people whose names are similar to those that are on travel ban lists. The full implementation of the Trump order will likely expand this kind of collaboration with such repressive measures.
In addition to the travel ban, Trump is preparing extremely repressive measures targeting alleged undocumented residents and a wave of severe repression is already starting to build. To be clear, while these repressive measures are escalating, past administrations including the Obama administration also conducted massive deportation drives.
The raids are expanding daily:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/federal-agents-conduct-sweeping-immigration-enforcement-raids-in-at-least-6-states/2017/02/10/4b9f443a-efc8-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.35fc854099c3
(Apologies if WaPo tries to hit you with a view toll,)
More background - no toll:
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/court-says-no-muslim-ban-immigration-raids-ramp
No fee:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-federal-immigration-raids-20170210-story.html
The university cooperation with such measures not only impacts students but impacts some educators who hail from the targeted nations. Further – the general unity of the campus is disrupted if part of the community comes under targeting. It can lead to levels of distrust between part of the community and the administration.
UPDATE February 15, 2017
President Dell Omo wrote a lengthy letter to the campus 5 days after this article was first published and almost 3 weeks after the enactment of the travel ban. While it contained the expected Kumbaya - the poignant sentence that sums up Rider's position is:"While we must comply with federal requirements on immigration policies and adhere to all applicable law, we will work to maintain the privacy of our students and employees, and continue to admit students and hire faculty and staff without discrimination."
This is far short from what can be done - the AAUP nationally has endorsed the concept of "sanctuary campuses" which includes:
http://riderstudentsunion.blogspot.com/2017/02/five-days-after-i-publicly-brought.html
Original Blog article:
When Trump signed the legally questionable travel ban orders trying to keep people from 7 countries from traveling to the US – initially including current VISA holders – it touched off a firestorm of protests by 10s of 1000s at airports and also on college campuses. As a response – there has been a call on many campuses including Rutgers University for Sanctuary – which means for those colleges to refuse to cooperate with repressive measures of government targeting foreign nationals and immigrants. Campuses have for years been providing data to the federal government and searching their student data bases for people whose names are similar to those that are on travel ban lists. The full implementation of the Trump order will likely expand this kind of collaboration with such repressive measures.
In addition to the travel ban, Trump is preparing extremely repressive measures targeting alleged undocumented residents and a wave of severe repression is already starting to build. To be clear, while these repressive measures are escalating, past administrations including the Obama administration also conducted massive deportation drives.
The raids are expanding daily:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/federal-agents-conduct-sweeping-immigration-enforcement-raids-in-at-least-6-states/2017/02/10/4b9f443a-efc8-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.35fc854099c3
(Apologies if WaPo tries to hit you with a view toll,)
More background - no toll:
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/court-says-no-muslim-ban-immigration-raids-ramp
No fee:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-federal-immigration-raids-20170210-story.html
The university cooperation with such measures not only impacts students but impacts some educators who hail from the targeted nations. Further – the general unity of the campus is disrupted if part of the community comes under targeting. It can lead to levels of distrust between part of the community and the administration.
Here are some links of how some campuses are dealing with
the increasingly repressive climate toward foreign nationals:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/01/the-sanctuary-university-issue-is-not-going-away.html
Has the question been put to the Rider Administration? Has anybody at Rider or any organizations
called for non-cooperation with these repressive measures targeting immigrants and
foreign nationals?
Rider being a private university receives less support from
federal and state government than the state and county colleges. Therefore it can be better positioned to
refuse cooperation and to declare sanctuary status – without risk of such
funding.
I am interested in feedback and in seeing what students and faculty are thinking about the University position on these matters.
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