WATERVILLE — President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to cancel a program protecting undocumented youths has prompted Colby College faculty and staff to urge the college be a “sanctuary center of higher education” that ensures students be protected from deportation and receive legal guidance if necessary.
Trump has vowed on his first day in office to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals instituted by President Barack Obama by executive action in 2012. The DACA initiative gives undocumented youth a temporary reprieve from deportation, among other protections, helping hundreds of thousands of people lawfully work, obtain driver’s licenses and bank accounts and travel.
A letter dated Nov. 16 and signed by 113 Colby staff and faculty members says there are DACA students at the college, though it is not known how many. The Morning Sentinel could not immediately reach any of those students Tuesday. The letter asks what will happen Jan. 20, 2017, when Trump is inaugurated as president and presumably cancels the program.
The open letter addressed to Colby leaders, including President David A. Greene, asks “how the college is providing for the safety and security of students, faculty and staff who may lose protections for their immigration status or face other serious problems.”
“We urge you to act expeditiously to make arrangements that will ensure that the students whom we welcomed to Colby and pledged to support with financial aid will continue to receive our welcome and our support,” the letter states.
In a letter to the Colby community, dated Monday, Greene pledged the college’s commitment to those who are vulnerable.
“Let us reaffirm at Colby our commitment to a deep and abiding respect for our shared humanity, and let our differences in backgrounds, experiences, identities, and cultural and political beliefs be a source of strength and discovery,” Greene writes in his letter. “I can assure you that we will do all in our power to secure the safety of our community members, no matter their nationality, immigration status, race, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity, and that we will fight policies that run counter to our mission of educating the most talented students from across the country and around the world.”
His letter, posted on the college’s website, also offers suggestions about what people can do to help make an impact, as many had asked for his advice. He recommends they help build a better society by listening to and talking honestly with one another and that they cast aside stereotypes and “rid ourselves of the presumptions that supporting any particular candidate or party reveals what we need to know about an individual’s beliefs.”
“And let us engage in life off the Hill to know our neighbors and to join with them in building a stronger, more vibrant social fabric.”
Greene also suggested using the tools of education and scholarship to gain a more nuanced understanding of issues and amplify arguments based on evidence. He advised that people become engaged in the political process, vote, fight for positive change and hold elected officials accountable.
Faculty and staff members, meanwhile, also have asked Colby officials to secure the financial aid packages of undocumented students if DACA is canceled and offer other assistance, such as legal guidance.
The letter is addressed to Greene; Lori Kletzer, provost and dean of Colby faculty; and Eric Rosengren, chairman of Colby’s board of trustees. Rosengren is a 1979 Colby graduate and president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Greene is one more than 200 presidents who, as of Tuesday, had signed a statement supporting DACA and urging business, civic, religious and nonprofit organizations to join them in supporting DACA and undocumented immigrant students.
“To our country’s leaders, we say that DACA should be upheld, continued and expanded,” that statement says. “We are prepared to meet with you to present our case. This is both a moral imperative and a national necessity.”
The letter is titled “College and University Presidents Call for U.S. to Uphold and Continue DACA.” .Greene is joined in Maine by presidents from Bates and Bowdoin colleges.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story