BRUNSWICK

A presentation Thursday by the National Association of College and University Attorneys and American Council on Education may inform schools including Bowdoin College on student immigration issues.

Since the Nov. 8 presidential election, Bowdoin joined over 150 higher education institutions where petition signers online are asking college administrators to protect students with uncertain immigration status. Bowdoin’s petition, for example, asks President Clayton Rose and others to protect students via the Dream Act, also referred to as DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. President Obama signed DACA in 2012. The act applies to higher ed students whose parents brought them from other countries into the U.S. when they were minor children.

President-elect Donald J. Trump made immigration, especially illegal immigration, a highlight of his political campaign. How he will pursue his concerns of undocumented people living in America is unknown.

Signers of Bowdoin’s online petition did not have to have an affiliation with the college to add their name. Some college campuses required this.

Rose, in a letter to the entire college community, said recently that the college cannot become a sanctuary campus and immune to federal immigration laws.

“Legal counsel tells us that we have no such power, so to make this kind of declaration would be both disingenuous and falsely reassuring,” Rose said about the online petition. “It might also have the unintended and detrimental consequence of focusing attention on those we seek to support. So while this is not something we can consider, Bowdoin will continue to do what it always does: we will support the members of our community, in this case on many fronts.”

Trump has said he may follow through with deportation of undocumented immigrants with criminal records. It is unknown if this would affect college communities.

Rose seeks to reassure Bowdoin students as a whole.

“We stand with those in our community who are threatened or harmed, we treat each other with warmth, respect, and humanity, we challenge ideas not identities and heritage, and we denounce hatred and bigotry. These are Bowdoin values.”

lconnell@timesrecord.com