University System News:
www.myajc.com
Georgia colleges wade through ‘uncharted waters’ of Trump order
By Janel Davis – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While protests broke out around the country, Georgia’s college leaders were working to decipher the impact of President Donald Trump’s immigration order on their students and faculty, while trying to also reassure them. Officials in the state’s public college system were hesitant to speak about the order. A statement sent out to public college presidents late Sunday by University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley, said the system is monitoring updates from the federal State Department, and it instructed international students and employees to consult with their school’s international education office for any travel guidance. Emory University’s president Claire Sterk was more forceful, calling the situation “largely uncharted waters.” …A day after it was released, Trump’s executive order was already impacting Georgia students. A third-year doctoral student at Clark Atlanta University traveling back from Saudi Arabia with her sister was detained at an airport in that country. Airport officials told Reham Noaman, 31, and her sister, a sophomore at Georgia State University, they couldn’t issue them boarding passes for their direct flight to Atlanta. The sisters, who hold F1 student visas, were told by airport officials the denial was due to the president’s order. The executive order suspends all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days, and bars those from war-torn Syria indefinitely. It also blocks entry to citizens from seven Muslim nations, including Noaman’s home country of Yemen, for 90 days.
www.macon.com
Can’t afford college? New UGA campaign seeks to eliminate the financial strain
BY STANLEY DUNLAP
A new University of Georgia campaign aims to provide scholarships to hundreds of people struggling to afford college. Under the Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program, the UGA Foundation will match gifts of $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 for need-based scholarships. The program is expected to provide 400-600 new scholarships each year, according to a news release. “Scholarships are life-changing,” UGA President Jere Morehead said in a statement. “They remove barriers and open doors. They create for our students and their families pathways to futures that would otherwise be unreachable.”
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
GGC students pour in donations for South Ga. relief efforts
KeithFarner
About 20 Georgia Gwinnett College students and a faculty member will take a small convoy of vehicles loaded with bottled watter, paper hygiene products, pet food and supplies and a swelling pile of clothes to help the South Georgia storm relief efforts.
www.walb.com
Atlanta area students help with tornado recovery
http://www.walb.com/story/34370949/atlanta-area-students-help-with-tornado-recovery
By Zachary Logan, Reporter
ALBANY, GA (WALB) – Students at Albany State University were joined by other University System of Georgia students on Saturday, January 28, 2017, to help with the cleanup. Two groups from Georgia Gwinnett College drove down to Albany to help with the recovery efforts. Students collected donations at their campus and then brought them down to South Georgia to help various tornado victims. “It makes you feel like you haven’t been forgotten. People are caring for you [and] praying for you,” Albany State University Student Howard Weatherspoon said. Some students went to the Albany Civic Center to help people in need while others helped with the cleanup in area neighborhoods.
www.times-herald.com
Headley returning to college, graduating, 60 years later
http://times-herald.com/news/2017/01/headley-returning-to-college-graduating-60-years-later
By SARAH FAY CAMPBELL
In 1954, Bill Headley started at Auburn University. He planned to become a civil engineer, like his father. Though talented in layout and drafting, Headley wasn’t a great student. And in 1937, he flunked out. Shortly thereafter, he was drafted into the Army. After serving in the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper, he went on to build a successful career in construction, starting his own business, Headley Construction, and settling his family in Newnan. At the age of 62, he retired from running Headley Construction, but continued as a real estate investor. Along the way, he got his private pilot’s license and hiked the Appalachian Trail. By any criteria, Headley was extremely successful in life, despite getting kicked out of college. He didn’t need a degree. But Headley decided he still wanted one, and a few years ago, he enrolled in the University of West Georgia. He’s set to graduate in May, two weeks before his 82nd birthday.
www.wmbfnews.com
Muslim student dragged out of student government meeting
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/34366371/muslim-student-dragged-out-of-student-government-meeting
ATLANTA (CBS46) -On Thursday night Asma Elhuni was dragged out of a public SGA meeting at Georgia State University(GSU) for asking a question. The University’s president, Mark Becker was attending the meeting and Elhuni asked if he would take questions from the public. Becker only wanted to take questions from the SGA senate, however student organizers printed and passed out copies of questions written by students to the senators in case they were willing to pass along student concerns to the president. Even after Elhuni was threatened by the campus police to receive a criminal trespassing charge along with a 2-year ban from the campus,Elhuni courageously stood and asked “why won’t Dr. Mark Becker sign a community benefits Agreement?”
www.wsbtv.com
Students upset commencement at Georgia Tech
by: Justin Wilfon
Some college seniors have complaints about their commencement. They say they are concerned about the venue — and the number of tickets they will receive. It may unusual on the surface, but Georgia State Officials say they have very good reasons for holding this year’s commencement at the McCamish Pavilion on Georgia Tech’s campus … While Georgia State commencements were held at the Georgia Dome in previous years, this year Georgia State seniors will pick up their diplomas at Georgia Tech’s McCamish Pavilion … GSU struck out on the three logical places for this year’s ceremony. The Georgia dome is about to be imploded, the remodeling project at Turner Field won’t be done in time and Philips Arena is keeping its calendar clear for other possible events.
www.tiftongazette.com
ABAC receives $3,800 grant from USPOULTRY Foundation
Stuart Taylor
TIFTON— A $3,800 grant from the USPOULTRY Foundation has been awarded to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College to assist in the recruiting of poultry science students. The grant was made possible by an endowment gift from the Don Dalton Student Recruiting Fund. Dalton had a long and successful career in the field of poultry, at one time serving as president of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association and the USPOULTRY Harold E. Ford Foundation. Dr. Martha Moen, assistant professor of animal science at ABAC, said, “The poultry industry has grown significantly in South Georgia, thus the career opportunities for well-prepared college graduates are increasing in ABAC’s region. This grant will allow us to raise awareness of this field of study among current and potential ABAC students.”
www.macon.com
Rural Georgia struggles getting lawmakers’ attention
http://www.macon.com/news/local/article129160804.html
BY MAGGIE LEE
There’s a phrase that more and more people are using at the state Capitol, and not everybody says it with a country twang. Rural Georgia. Lawmakers are talking about the problems that plague some of Georgia’s smaller communities. Main Street businesses that have closed. Financially struggling hospitals. Poor internet connections. Schools that don’t offer all the classes that will help students get into the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech. Young people moving to cities and never coming back. Now there’s a move afoot in the state House to try and look at all these things comprehensively. So far it doesn’t have a formal name, but House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, is calling it the rural development initiative. He mentioned it in a speech in front of Georgia mayors on Monday.
www.wjbf.com
Former GRU president one of highest paid state employees
http://wjbf.com/2017/01/28/former-gru-president-one-of-highest-paid-state-employees/
By Mike Miller
AUGUSTA (WJBF) — The former president of Georgia Regents University is one of the highest paid state employees, even though he stepped down and no longer runs the school. Ricardo Azziz made $1,735,874 last year, according to state records. The former school leader is now making his salary from a deferred compensation plan and his work as Regents Professor at Augusta University. Azziz is the highest paid state university official, but he’s the 2nd highest paid state employee overall. …Georgia Tech’s president, Bud Peterson, is third with $1,107,843. Augusta University has 11 employees within the Top 20 list. Most of them are doctors and department heads. Current president Brooks Keel is number 11 making $765,558 a year.
www.onlineathens.com
UGA joins initiative to advance biotech manufacturing in the U.S.
By UGA News Service
The University of Georgia is partnering in a biopharmaceutical innovation institute that aims to boost market production of cell-based therapies and develop a skilled workforce trained for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. The new public-private partnership, called the National Institute for Innovation of Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals will focus its efforts on driving down the cost and risks associated with manufacturing advanced cell and gene therapies for biopharmaceutical production. Steven Stice, director of the UGA’s Regenerative Bioscience Center, is the UGA lead in the partnership, which is coordinated by the University of Delaware. NIIMBL represents a total investment of $250 million, including $129 million in private cost-share commitments from the NIIMBL consortium of 150 companies, nonprofits, educational institutions and state partners across the country, combined with at least $70 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce. This recent success follows an announcement in 2016 by the U.S. Department of Defense that an MIT-led team involving UGA was selected for funding as the eighth NNMI institute.
www.finance.yahoo.com
Breathe in, breathe out: New technique controls smartwatch using breath and skin
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/newly-developed-input-technique-controls-220351278.html
Dyllan Furness
Picture this: You’re leaving the supermarket with your hands full of grocery bags when you suddenly get a call. Tilt your wrist to read your smartwatch. It’s Mom. You’re sure she’s calling to remind you to pick up milk. And you’re already lugging a gallon back to your car so you deny the call. But instead of dropping all your bags to do so, you simply lift your arm and shush the watch by blowing on it. This is just one interactive feature developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology intended to give smartwatch wearers more control over their device. These apps are designed to enhance LG and Sony smartwatches, allowing users to answer phone calls using their breath, dial numbers by tapping their hand, and scroll through apps by running their fingers against the watch band. “We are all aware that the input on smartwatches can be improved,” Cheng Zhang, a Ph.D. student and lead researcher behind Georgia Tech’s WatchOut application, told Digital Trends. WatchOut lets wearers interact with their smartwatch through contact with the bevel and watchband.
www.atlanta.curbed.com
Means Street District near Georgia Tech heading toward ‘Landmark’ status
The City Council Zoning Committee recommended the neighborhood west of Tech be protected
BY MICHAEL KAHN
Last summer, plans for the construction of a gas station just to the west of Georgia Tech caused a stir. It wasn’t so much the gas station that ruffled feathers, but that the facility would replace a former bookstore known to generations of Tech students. The potential loss of the Engineer’s Bookstore structure, housed in a modest brick commercial building constructed in 1930 as a convenience store, served as a rallying cry for preservationists concerned that the city was losing another vestige of its yesteryear retail landscape. Now, thanks to that effort, the Atlanta City Council’s Zoning Committee voted in favor of the creation of the Means Street Landmark District. The district would not only protect the Engineer’s Bookstore, but also includes other period buildings — the Hotel Roxy, Atlanta Contemporary, Allied Factory Lofts, and the Carriage Works — from the district’s heyday in the interwar years … The full city council will vote Feb. 6 to make the designation official. Sounds like a step in the right direction.
www.myinforms.com
UWG BREAKS GROUND ON $24M EXPANSION OF BIOLOGY BUILDING
http://myinforms.com/en-us/a/45890000-uwg-breaks-ground-on-24m-expansion-of-biology-building/
The University of West Georgia broke ground Friday on renovation and expansion work that will transform its 46-year-old biology building into a modern center for collaborative learning and research. Students, faculty and staff attended the event, along with representatives from the Georgia Board of Regents and the state Legislature. “This is a very exciting day for all of us,” said UWG President Dr. Kyle Marrero. “This building was opened in 1972, and today — many years later — we’re on the precipice of a state-of-the-art facility that will serve 70 percent of our students and educate the scientists, researchers, nurses, educators and innovators of tomorrow.”
www.statesboroherald.com
‘New’ GS budgeted for engineering building here
Hebert: No, he wasn’t told of merger when hired
By AL HACKLE
In an interview this week, Georgia Southern University President Jaimie Hebert, PhD, noted that the state is planning for growth on both the current GS campus in Statesboro and the Armstrong State University campus in Savannah that will become part of Georgia Southern in the consolidation work he is guiding. “Hopefully, the governor’s budget, which is public, will be approved,” Hebert said. “That has planning money for an engineering research center here on the Statesboro campus. It includes construction money for a health sciences building in Savannah on the Armstrong campus.” In his fiscal year 2018 budget, Gov. Nathan Deal has recommended $22 million in construction funds for the Health Professions Academic Center at Armstrong and $4.9 million in planning and design funds for a Center for Engineering and Research on the Georgia Southern campus. The new fiscal year begins this July 1. So, if the funding remains in the budget the Legislature approves, construction of the Armstrong health sciences building will probably begin this fall, and the GS engineering facility could follow in fall 2018, University System of Georgia spokeswoman Sonja Roberts said in an email. …Hebert started as Georgia Southern’s president July 1, after interviewing with a campus committee and the Board of Regents a few months earlier. Asked this week if the regents talked to him about this consolidation during the hiring process, he said they hadn’t. “At some point early on, I would have been blind not to think that everyone in the state of Georgia was in the mix as far as consolidations go,” he said. “But specific talk about Georgia Southern and an Armstrong consolidation? Nothing formal. There were no formal discussions about that.” Hebert heard only the same rumors as everyone else, he said, until the decision emerged very recently from the regents and their staff.
www.wtoc.com
Professionals from both ASU, GS to work together on consolidation
http://www.wtoc.com/story/34365979/professionals-from-both-asu-gs-to-work-together-on-consolidation
By Bradley Mullis, Weekend Assignment Editor
SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) – We’re learning new details about the confirmed Armstrong State and Georgia Southern universities’ consolidation. The two universities are trying to work together to find out what both faculty and students want. Roughly two weeks has passed since the consolidation between Armstrong State University and Georgia Southern University became official, prompting presidents of both universities to assemble a team of professionals who will help merge the two schools together. The team will consist of 20 professionals from each college. Georgia Southern’s team will have more of a background in administrative roles, while Armstrong’s team will be represented by its various deans of its colleges, professors, and administrators with backgrounds in finance or various student services focused on the intricacies of the transition. They will all be joined by David Smith, Chief of Staff of Savannah State University. Their goal is to work under the hood of the merger and figure out how to create an accessible university that will benefit all faculty and students.
www.wrcbtv.com
Committees set to steer mergers affecting 4 Georgia colleges
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/34372797/committees-set-to-steer-mergers-affecting-4-georgia-colleges
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – Two committees have been named to steer mergers affecting four colleges in southern Georgia. Steve Wrigley, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, appointed 41 people to serve on a committee overseeing the consolidation of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro and Armstrong State University in Savannah. The panel includes the presidents of both campuses as well as professors, administrators and a student apiece from each school. Wrigley also named a similar 32-member committee to work out key details of the merger of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton with Bainbridge State College.
www.savannahnow.com
Ernst: Financials, enrollment are strong at Armstrong State University
Since 1935, Armstrong State University has been helping students start strong and finish even stronger. I understand the power of an Armstrong education firsthand, as I earned a bachelor’s degree from the university in 1974, before attending law school at the University of Georgia and starting my career as an attorney. However, Armstrong’s future will look quite different than its past. On Jan. 11, the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents approved Chancellor Steve Wrigley’s proposal to consolidate Armstrong and Georgia Southern University, creating a new institution which will ideally combine the strengths of both universities. As a proud Armstrong graduate, I have mixed feelings about the consolidation because I know Armstrong has a rich history, enjoys strong connections to the Savannah community and meets the unique needs of non-traditional, military and Latino students. Since the vote by the Board of Regents, rumors have been swirling about a variety of issues, including Armstrong’s financial health, which some evidently feel may have contributed to the “need” for a consolidation. I do not wish to debate the pros and cons of consolidation, but it’s important to set the record straight about a few important facts. First, as the chairman of the Armstrong Foundation’s Board of Trustees, I can attest to the fact that Armstrong has been operating “in the black” with a strong cash surplus and healthy tuition revenue. Conservative budgeting has allowed the university to balance its annual budget, complete significant infrastructure projects, increase faculty and staff salaries through market-based adjustments and accrue a tuition carry-forward reserve. At Armstrong, cash increased by $1.1 million from the end of fiscal year 2015 to the end of fiscal year 2016, with the university’s net position increasing by $3.8 million and auxiliary reserve balances increasing by $1.5 million. The university’s cash position has grown substantially over the past several years. As of Dec. 31, 2016, Armstrong’s cash balance stood at $23.4 million, marking a $2.6 million increase over the prior year. At the same time, tuition revenue has been steadily increasing, hitting a record high of $32.4 million in fiscal year 2016.
www.savannahnow.com
Barton: Return the Armstrong House to the college fold
http://savannahnow.com/opinion-opinion-columns/2017-01-28/barton-return-armstrong-house-college-fold
By Tom Barton
Any merger of Armstrong State University and Georgia Southern University must incorporate the long and proud tradition of Armstrong in a major way. Otherwise, the feelings of loss in any merger deal will be difficult to overcome. Here’s a fine idea I heard about last week: Acquiring the soon-to-be-vacant Armstrong House, the stately mansion in the heart of the downtown Historic District, where the college got its start in 1935, and using it as the administrative headquarters for a new merged university. Such a bold and symbolic act would help settle much of the turmoil surrounding the proposed merger among many Armstrong supporters who fear their small intimate university is being gobbled up by its larger, brasher cousin to the west. With the merged school’s president’s office at the Armstrong House in the heart of Savannah, it would be hard to argue that Armstrong’s legacy was being relegated to the ash heap. The Armstrong House’s most recent occupant, the Bouhan Falligant law firm, is moving soon to new digs at 1 W. Park Ave., at the other end of Forsyth Park. The law firm announced last summer that it has sold the property, valued on the county’s tax books at $3.9 million, to local hotelier Richard Kessler. Is it possible to convince Kessler to give up his claim to this prime real estate for the greater good? I think so, based on his record as a civic-minded businessman. He’s also a class act who appreciates fine art and letting Georgia’s University System reacquire this property would be a classy thing to do — akin to returning an old masterpiece to its original owner. Think of the meetings and fundraising receptions that the institution’s president could host at the Armstrong House. Guests and dignitaries couldn’t help but be swept away inside this granite and glazed brick, Italian Renaissance mansion, constructed (over the course of three years) to be the home of George Ferguson Armstrong (1868-1924), a local shipping magnate and respected philanthropist who, like Kessler, hailed from Effingham County. To honor him after his death, his daughter Lucy Camp Armstrong Moltz and her daughter Lucy Armstrong Johnson gave Armstrong House to the city of Savannah. …Armstrong should have the house that the Armstrongs built. Keep the valuable contributions of the Armstrong family and Mayor Gamble and many others on the map by acquiring the 100-year-old Armstrong House and using it as the president’s office for a new merged university. It would be a fine way to cement Armstrong’s legacy.
www.coastalcourier.com
Closing Liberty Center would be ‘crazy’
http://coastalcourier.com/section/5/article/85136/
By Tiffany King
The Armstrong Liberty Center campus will not close with the consolidation of Armstrong State University and Georgia Southern University. Armstrong’s President Dr. Linda Bleicken, who will retire in June, said Jaimie Hebert, president of Georgia Southern University, is aware of how “vibrant the Armstrong Liberty campus is.” “You would have to be crazy to close down that place,” Bleicken said. “Although he has not visited the Armstrong campus in Liberty County, I know he will be impressed by it and he’s committed to supporting it.” The announcement of the merger of the schools last week has raised more questions than answers. During the Armstrong State town hall meeting Jan. 12, Hebert said he does not see the Liberty Center diminishing in any way and commended Armstrong for its work with veteran students and the military community. Hebert said Georgia Southern “pales in comparison to what Armstrong does for veterans.”
Higher Education News:
www.nytimes.com
‘The Only Way We Can Fight Back Is to Excel’
Undocumented college students face an uncertain future under the Trump administration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/magazine/the-only-way-we-can-fight-back-is-to-excel.html?_r=0
By DALE RUSSAKOFF
When Indira Islas was in third grade at Centennial Arts Academy, a public elementary school in Gainesville, Ga., she decided it was time to get serious. It was 2006, and she was in the lowest reading group in her class. She had been in that group since arriving two years earlier, speaking no English, in Gainesville, a city of 38,000 just northeast of Atlanta’s booming outer suburbs. But being at the bottom went against everything she believed about herself … She was distressed to discover that Georgia barred undocumented immigrants from attending its top public universities and charged them out-of-state tuition at all others — triple the rate for citizen residents … At a college fair attended by representatives of numerous Georgia colleges, she asked admissions officers what kind of help was available for undocumented students. No one had any to offer her. She switched her focus to private colleges and was admitted to Atlanta’s Agnes Scott, which she says awarded her $20,000 annually in financial aid, less than half of what she needed.
www.chronicle.com
What You Need to Know About Colleges and the Immigration Ban
http://www.chronicle.com/article/What-You-Need-to-Know-About/239038
By Andy Thomason
President Trump’s executive order Friday that bars all refugees from entering the United States, as well as citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries, prompted colleges to frantically start trying to determine what it meant for them. Here’s what you need to know: Who is affected? The order touches many different parts of academe. Students, professors, and researchers traveling internationally found themselves in limbo. Two professors at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth were detained at Logan International Airport, in Boston, the university said in a statement. An undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was also reportedly barred from re-entering the United States because she is an Iranian citizen. (Of the more than 15,000 international students who are directly affected by the order, roughly 12,000 are from Iran).
www.insidehighered.com
Forceful Response
The Trump administration’s entry ban triggered wide condemnation from colleges, associations, faculty groups and others in higher education.
By Paul Fain
Many higher education leaders issued statements over the weekend in response to the Trump administration’s executive order to ban immigrants and nonimmigrant visitors from seven countries, which are majority Muslim, from entering the United States. They criticized the ban for the disruption it caused to students and scholars and for confusion around the order and its implementation and, in many cases, expressed moral outrage. The speed and volume of the response by the large number of colleges and academic groups — some without a tradition of quickly weighing in on political developments — was highly unusual. The following is a sampling of the statements. (Others are quoted in this article.) Most are excerpts. Links to full statements have been included where available.
www.politics.blog.ajc.com
Silence and solidarity: Georgia Republicans on Trump’s refugee decision
Greg Bluestein
There was mostly silence from top Georgia Republican elected officials on President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep millions of foreigners out of the country. But there was a surge of support for the controversial policy from Trump’s self-styled outsider allies in Georgia. “This is looking forward. This is inheriting a mess and trying to determine: Is there a problem here, or is there not?” said former Rep. Jack Kingston, a Savannah Republican and one of Trump’s go-to surrogates on cable news. The order blocked all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days, indefinitely barred Syrian refugees from coming into the country and suspended citizens of seven countries from traveling here: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The order, which took effect Friday afternoon, created chaos across the globe as scores of refugees were detained at airports in Atlanta and around the nation. A federal judge’s order temporarily prevented the government from deporting some arrivals. Bruce Levell, the head of Trump’s diversity coalition and a likely candidate for Congress in suburban Atlanta, echoed the president’s argument that the measures would help prevent terrorism.
www.chronicle.com
Trump’s Travel Ban Leaves Students Stranded — and Colleges Scrambling to Help
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Trump-s-Travel-Ban-Leaves/239039
By Karin Fischer
Stay calm, you’re safe here. That’s the message American colleges have been trying to send to international students in the wake of an executive order, signed Friday night by President Trump, that imposes a travel ban on visitors — including students and other people with valid visas — from seven largely Muslim countries … At the University of Georgia, roughly 75 students and scholars hail from one of the seven affected countries. An uptick in concerned phone calls and emails to the office of international student and scholar services had already begun at the end of the presidential campaign, even before the executive order was issued, says Robin Catmur, the office’s director. But the volume has increased in recent days. Some students asked if they could be deported. One Iranian student called in tears because her parents, whom she had not seen in two years, were denied visas. She now knew she could not go home to see them.
www.diverseeducation.com
University of California Shows Leadership on Trump Travel Ban
by Emil Guillermo
If your school or university has been mum on Trump’s executive orders on sanctuary cities and the wall on Mexico, the very last one signed Friday on a temporary ban on Muslim travel, should have you cranking out your PR statements post-haste. Where do the sane folks of higher ed stand? On Sunday, the University of California, led by President Janet Napolitano, former head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013, issued a joint statement with the chancellors of the University of California that left no doubt. Universities, especially public institutions, have a major role in the moral leadership of America and should not shirk that responsibility. “We are deeply concerned by the recent executive order that restricts the ability of our students, faculty, staff, and other members of the UC community from certain countries from being able to enter or return to the United States,” said Napolitano in a statement issued Sunday. “While maintaining the security of the nation’s visa system is critical, this executive order is contrary to the values we hold dear as leaders of the University of California,” the statement continued.
www.diverseeducation.com
College Presidents Vow to Protect Students Amid Immigration Crackdown
by Jamal Eric Watson
Several college presidents sprang into action over the weekend, reassuring their students who are from the seven predominantly Muslim countries that President Trump temporarily banned from entering the United States that they would do everything to support them in these uncertain days. Dr. David Wilson, president of Morgan State University, a historically Black college located in Baltimore, penned a letter to the Morgan community on Saturday, expressing his dismay over Trump’s executive order. …Immigration officials detained many individuals on Saturday, forcing the American Civil Liberties Union to go to court to stop Trump’s order. On Saturday evening, a federal judge issued a temporary stay, prohibiting federal officials from sending the detainees with valid visas from being returned to their country of origin. …At John F. Kennedy International Airport, the protestors were holding signs and chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Muslim ban has got to go.” In New York, Dr. Vincent Boudreau, interim president of The City College of New York (CCNY) in Harlem, took to Twitter to encourage any CCNY student denied entry into the United States to contact him directly. …Several college presidents said that they were caught off-guard by Trump’s directive and will continue to monitor the court proceedings and advise their students accordingly. However, for many international students who have already felt uneasy about the status of their future in the United States in the wake of Trump’s election, administrators have also been making the rounds to reassure them that they will fight to ensure that they will remain at the institution.