Members and faculty supporters of the UndocuHoosier Alliance lined up Tuesday afternoon at the back wall of President’s Hall to express their grievances to the Bloomington Faculty Council regarding last week’s executive order on immigration.
Holding signs that, among other things, read “Sanctuary Campus Now,” “No Ban on Stolen Land” and "Ningun ser humano es ilegal” — no human being is illegal — the group sought to secure sanctuary status, a topic of national debate, for the Bloomington campus.
Rebecca Spang, president of the council, initiated the meeting by offering an amended agenda, which would give discussion time to the issue put forward by the organization, whose members were present at the past two council meetings.
“This door is open to all,” Spang read off a poster of the Statue of Liberty.
Before other faculty members or students spoke, Robel reviewed the contents of the email she sent to students. She said much of her original statement was to explain the legal implications to students and faculty because Robel is a lawyer and law professor.
In addition to reviewing the statement, she told the room at least 160 IU applications from the seven countries listed in the order had been put on hold at the time. The provost did not want to craft a response without consulting those affected but wanted faculty and staff to be aware of any plan when it was put in place, she said.
“This executive order, in particular, is a moving target,” Robel said.
The frequent federal rulings in response to the mandate create gray areas, and the Office of International Services has created a website that will be updated as new developments are made, the provost said.
Robel emphasized the campus as one body that needed to unite in support of higher education and its core values, which President Michael McRobbie stated were in contrast with the executive order. She said there could be no exceptions to “one IU.”
“Things that might be symbolic are important in my view,” Robel said. The statement elicited snickers from the protesters.
Shane Greene, a professor of anthropology who was substituting for another member of the council, asked if he could read a statement circulated and signed by UndocuHoosiers Alliance prior to the meeting.
The students holding signs, who until this point had been almost silent, snapped their fingers when he requested time for his statement, which required suspension of council rules to present, because the ensuing discussion was not part of the formal agenda .
Green secured the two-thirds maj vote needed to suspend council rules. Then he read the statement, which expressed outrage at the executive order. The petition was appreciative of McRobbie’s statement and asked for clarification on six issues the organization wanted to see addressed by the University.
“Strong words must be followed by strong actions,” Greene said.
Among the six points on the petition were references to statements by the president of University of Michigan regarding university police’s role, or lack thereof, in enforcing the executive order. Greene said this had been written prior to Robel’s statement to the campus, which he said was even more thorough than that of the University of Michigan.
The main item was a request for a Bloomington sanctuary campus regardless of politics. Other points of clarification included whether pro-bono legal services offered by the provost had sufficient resources and funding.
Professors debated whether designating a sanctuary campus would invite unwanted federal attention or pull-back of funding. One professor said this designation might endanger the school in the current political climate, while another said sanctuary campuses, though symbolic, are a national movement. At this, protestors cheered.
Moira Marsh, the collection manager and library liaison for the anthropology department, presented an improvised resolution, which did not explicitly declare a sanctuary campus in Bloomington but made other provisions for affected students and faculty.
Among these provisions were waivers or assistance for those whose personal success was impeded by the executive order. This included extensions for student work and faculty progression toward tenure or reappointment.
Faculty members made sounds and gestured their approval.
A vote was called, and the resolution, though incomplete in its writing, passed with a majority of votes to scattered applause from those at the back wall.
After being asked about the sufficiency of the resolution, those from UndocuHoosier Alliance expressed disapproval. A member from the group said the resolution did not satisfy them.
She said she, as an Arab-American, was more concerned with being deported or put in a camp than she was about the University losing federal funding. She asked the council to reflect on how they might feel years from today when they won’t have the option to make the decision.
“I think you will wish you’d declared this a sanctuary campus,” she said.
Another student said the administration’s statement that the IU Police Department would act within the law not to disclose immigration information of students was not sufficient, and he would prefer the University take a position of explicit noncompliance.
The UndocuHoosiers requested the sanctuary campus vote to take place, with one member expressing the issue’s urgency. As history has demonstrated, the law can and will change, another member said.
With the passing of the resolution and ensuing discussion, the UndocuHoosier’s time was up, and the Bloomington Faculty Council resumed the normal agenda more than an hour after the meeting began.
