Florida International University Faculty for Protecting Undocumented Students

Like many people in South Florida, we were caught off guard by the election. We live and work
in a region where hearing different languages and meeting people who come from different
places is an everyday fact of life. We dont just tolerate that here: we expect it, and it is what
many of us love about South Florida.
Throughout the campaign, we were disturbed to see these differences we have come to
appreciate used in the most cynical and dishonest ways. As we try now to make sense of the
election, we have our disagreements about what it meansfor us and for the countrybut we
are in agreement on one thing: the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States
laid bare the pervasive racism and sexism that have limited the life chances of too many
Americans for too long. As a nation, we cannot continue to sweep these problems under the rug.
But as educators at Florida International Universityone of the largest and most diverse
American universities, 81% of whose more than 50,000 students are racial and ethnic minorities
(including many immigrants)our top priority is our students. We are deeply worried about the
dangers of a Trump presidency to their well-being and to the educational mission of our
university.
In 2012, President Obama signed an executive order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA), which allowed some undocumented immigrants to legally attend school. The president
of FIU recently joined more than 450 college and university presidents in urging national leaders
to maintain DACA because it is both a moral imperative and a national necessity. DACA
students (or dreamers), they correctly argued, represent what is best about America [and] . . .
are essential to the future of this country (http://tinyurl.com/hy3ongj).
President-elect Trump, however, has promised to immediately terminate DACA and render
hundreds of thousands of undocumented students eligible for deportation. In February, Trump
explained his position by absurdly suggesting that immigrant students somehow threaten
American students. I want dreamers to come from this country, Trump stated. Were
always talking about dreamers for other people.
But that is, like so much of what Trump has said, a lie. Many of our brightest students are
dreamers; their dreams do not weaken our campusor this country: they make us better. Now,
like so many immigrants who came to the U.S. in search of better lives, they face the possibility
of being deported. We have sat with these students and listened to their stories. We have been
inspired by their commitment to get an education even in the face of obstacles many of us would
not be able to bear. And we have seen them weep as they now worry about whether their futures
will be cut short.
Around the country, our colleagues are standing with their students to demand that colleges and
universities declare themselves sanctuary campuses. This movement draws on a tradition of
providing safe haven to vulnerable populations that dates back to the refusal of individuals and
institutions to comply with fugitive slave laws. In that spirit, we call on our administration to
declare Florida International University a sanctuary campus, develop a plan for protecting

undocumented students, and refuse to cooperate with any efforts to identify, detain, or deport
undocumented students, even if DACA is repealed or any other laws or policies change. Our
university advertises the fact that we are the largest Hispanic serving institution in the
continental United States. We take great pride in the diversity of our students. Now, as they are
under attack, we cannot remain silent.
We ask you, members of our communities, to support us in this effort, which will surely not be
popular among those who are coming to power. And we ask you to join us, now and in the years
to come, in standing up for justice and equality for all and speaking out against the hateful words
and acts of those who would restrict the rights of some in order to make an America that we have
already seen and that was anything but great.
This statement was prepared by Drs. Jason Ritchie and Asia Eaton, with the support of the
undersigned FIU faculty members. More continue to add their names.
Iqbal Akhtar, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Aslihan Akkaya, Lecturer in Sociology
Jacqueline Amorim, Instructor in Writing and Rhetoric
Jennifer Bartman, Instructor in English
Whitney A. Bauman, Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Dan Bentley-Baker, Senior Instructor in Literature and Film
Michelle Beer, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Ana Maria Bidegain, Professor of Religious Studies
Heather Blatt, Assistant Professor of English
Cheryl Brewster, Associate Dean for Diversity
James P. Burns, Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction
Laura De Carli, Professor of Mathematics
Phillip M. Carter, Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Young Rae Choi, Assistant Professor of Geography
Alexandra Cornelius, Associate Chair and Lecturer of History
Ronald W. Cox, Professor of Politics and International Relations
Nandini Dhar, Assistant Professor of English
Maureen A. Donnelly, Professor of Biology
Tedi Draghici, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
John Dufresne, Professor of English
Denise Duhamel, Professor of English
Eric Dwyer, Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning
Asia A. Eaton, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Womens and Gender Studies
Julian Edward, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
Juliet Erazo, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Jacqueline Evans, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Paul Feigenbaum, Associate Professor of English
Carlos Fernandez, International Documents Librarian
Rebecca Friedman, Associate Professor of History
Chris Girard, Associate Professor of Sociology
Jenna Gibbs, Associate Professor of History

Guillermo J. Grenier, Professor of Sociology

Glenn Hutchinson, Interim Director of the Center for Excellence in Writing
Barbara King, Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning
Angela Laird, Professor of Physics
Abraham Lavender, Professor of Sociology
Mark Leckband, Associate Professor of Mathematics
Barry Levitt, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations
Katherine Lineberger, Lecturer & Director of Undergraduate Programs in Global &
Sociocultural Studies
Ana Luszczynska, Associate Professor of English
Lindsay C. Malloy, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Matthew D. Marr, Associate Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies
Amy Bliss Marshall, Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies
Sarah Matthews, Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning
Craig McGill, Senior Academic Advisor in English
April Merleaux, Associate Professor of History
Melanie Morales, Instructor in Teaching and Learning
Aurora G. Morcillo, Professor of History
Michaela Moura-Kocoglu, Postdoctoral Associate in Women's and Gender Studies
Erica Musser, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Giri Narasimhan, Professor of Computing and Information Sciences
Kristin Nichols-Lopez, Associate Chair of Psychology
Ulrich Osleander, Associate Professor of Geography
Okezi Otovo, Assistant Professor of History
Mark Padilla, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Alpesh Kantilal Patel, Assistant Professor of Art and Art History
Vrushali Patil, Associate Professor of Sociology
Sam Paustian, Assistant Professor of Management
Marifeli Perez-Stable, Professor of Sociology
Bianca Premo, Associate Professor of History
Shannon Pruden, Associate Professor of Psychology
Andrea Queeley, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Jean Muteba Rahier, Professor of Anthropology and African & African Diaspora Studies
Jason Ritchie, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Ediberto Romn, Professor of Law
Heather Russell, Chair and Professor of English
Elizabeth Scarbrough, Lecturer in Philosophy
Martha Schoolman, Assistant Professor of English
Nadja Schreiber Compo, Associate Professor of Psychology
Laurie J. Shrage, Professor of Philosophy
Benjamin Smith, Associate Professor of Geography
Dionne Stephens, Associate Professor of Psychology
Andrew Strycharski, Lecturer in English
Richard Tardanico, Associate Professor of Sociology
Markus Thiel, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations
Ellen Thompson, Associate Professor of Linguistics

Victor Uribe, Chair of History and Professor of Law

Steven M. Vose, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Julie Marie Wade, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
Jeff Wehr, Senior Instructor in English
Eric Bishop-von Wettberg, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Dennis Wiedman, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Kirsten Wood, Associate Professor of History
Susanne Zwingel, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations