UW-Madison Professors Pass Resolution Supporting Undocumented Students

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty Senate is calling for the support of undocumented students on campus. During their monthly meeting Monday, about 140 faculty members passed a resolution that calls for the federal government to continue and strengthen Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an immigration policy that protects certain undocumented students who came to the United States as children from deportation.

President-elect Donald Trump talked frequently about deporting undocumented immigrants during his campaign.

Faculty decided to push ahead with a vote at the December meeting because they wanted to make a statement of support before the presidential inauguration next month.

“I agree with my colleagues who think that waiting until after the Trump administration is in place to act is actually acting too late,” Jerome Camal, author of the resolution, said. “I also think that focusing on law enforcement and what the administration can do takes the focus away from what we as a faculty can do.”

Faculty senator Chris Walker said this resolution is a message from the faculty that they stand behind all students.

“What we saw in this room was support, understanding and just really love for students,” Walker said. “Hopefully students will see that and feel a little bit more confident and return focus to why they are here in the first place, which is to fully actualize and graduate.”

There was a lengthy debate among faculty at the Madison meeting about amending the resolution to include a list of things the university would do to protect students, such as not releasing immigration statuses to law enforcement without a warrant, but the amendment ultimately failed.

Faculty Senate member Mark Etzel, who offered the amendment, lamented that the original resolution wasn’t strong enough.

“The resolution as it’s written now without this amendment has no teeth, it’s wimpy,” said Etzel. “It really doesn’t say much and to me it’s kind of a shame if we’re not willing to stand up and say no to a federal government that wants to take undocumented students and kick them out.”

Etzel said his amendment was inspired by a list of steps that the University of California decided to take to protect its undocumented students. Other UW-Madison faculty senators debated whether the proposed amendment could be applied to the school because of the close relationship the UW System has with state government.

Two weeks ago, Chancellor Rebecca Blank signed a statement calling on the federal government to protect undocumented students on campuses across the country. As of Tuesday, more than 500 college and university presidents have signed the statement offering to meet with U.S. leaders to present their case for the continuation of DACA.

The Associated Students of Madison Student Council passed a resolution last week demanding that Blank declare the campus a sanctuary for undocumented students. The measure asks the university to refuse to release any information to federal immigration authorities and to create policies that would prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from coming onto campus to make arrests, conduct interviews or surveillance of undocumented students.

A letter with a similar agenda was written last month by a group of faculty and graduate students. So far, thousands of people have signed it.

A statement from UW-Madison in response to that letter said Blank does not have the sole authority to make the campus a sanctuary.

“She has the authority to administer and operate the university but must do so within the limits of applicable federal and state laws and the policies and guidelines established by the Board of Regents,” the statement said.

The statement also claimed the university police department doesn’t routinely gather information about people’s immigration statuses, and doesn’t plan on changing that. It did state, however, that the Madison Police Department and university police department can enforce laws on campus without getting permission from the university.

At the Faculty Senate meeting, Blank said the university is currently working with a group of faculty, staff and students to put together another statement in support of undocumented students that is in accordance with state law and “the prerogatives (they) have under the Board of Regents.”