By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Bowling Green State University Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday unfolded much as the January session had.
Senators were greeted by a gauntlet of protestors outside McFall, and then when the senate convened the sign-carrying demonstrators lined the assembly hall quietly and listened through President Mary Ellen Mazey’s remarks.
And when she addressed the issue they were concerned about, a request for a sanctuary campus, they heard the same stance.
The university must adhere to the law. But the university will do everything within the parameters of the law to assist foreign students and faculty as well as students with status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The university has 11 DACA students and 21 with visas or green cards from the seven countries covered by the travel ban.
Mazey has publicly supported proposed federal legislation, the BRIDGE Act that would extent DACA status to people who were brought to the country illegally as children. On Tuesday, Mazey announced she joined 600 other higher education leaders in signing a letter opposing the travel ban issued by the administration.
While acknowledging the need to “safeguard” the country, the letter states the signatories also recognize “the need for the United States to remain the destination of choice for the world’s best and brightest students, faculty, and scholars.”
This openness promotes American values abroad as well as promoting scientific and technological advances, the letter states.
When asked, Mazey would not speculate on what action the university would take if these legislative and lobbying efforts failed.
Professor Francisco Cabanillas then asked if those efforts fail “would we have to say yes in our town” to immigration officials checking the status of students and faculty, referencing the Not In Our Town anti-bias program that Mazey help found.
Mazey reiterated that all students and faculty are here legally, so she doesn’t see why immigration officials would come to BGSU. “We have confidence in the law.”
But for those pushing for sanctuary status that is not enough. Outside before the meeting, Ethnic Studies professor Michaela Walsh, who initiated the sanctuary campus petition, said she hoped that bringing the issue up before Faculty Senate “would be the first step toward creating an open dialogue” after the issue failed to generate discussion at the previous senate meeting.
Luis Moreno, also of Ethnic Studies, said the issue was driven by a concern for students, all students. He noted that most of the several dozen picketers were students.
“Students are coming out on this issue,” he said. ”They need to listen to the students.”
Nearby protestors chanted “all the power to the students.”
That dialogue didn’t happen. After Mazey’s remarks and the protestors’ departure, the meeting continued through its agenda with discussions of a new major, honorary degrees, parking and more.
But just before adjournment Christina Guenther, professor of German, said that the optional senate on-call meeting on Feb. 21 should be used to give a full airing of the issue.
Geologist Jim Evans then said that this was the second meeting at which dozens of people had showed up, and respectfully attended. The senate should have acknowledged their presence, he said, and invited someone to address their concerns.
Rachelle Hippler, who chairs the senate, said that no one had asked to speak and all requests to have items placed on agenda were anonymous. She conceded the senate could have been more welcoming.
After the meeting, Mazey said she welcomed the opportunity to discuss the issue and would be initiating a series of breakfast meetings in hopes to hear the concerns.
She said the university will work with members of the community to maintain BGSU’s commitment to inclusion and diversity.
But the university must obey the law. She said provisions of the sanctuary petition violated that principle.
“There are many different definitions of sanctuary,” she said. While the University of Michigan was praised for its stand, she noted it was doing no more than BGSU had already committed to doing,
