4 • The Daily Wildcat
News • Friday, December 2-Sunday, December 4, 2016
AEPI PHILANTHROPY FROM PAGE 1
The article, written by Rob Fox, also asserted that Kaplan cancelled the event because of fear of backlash. “So, uh, congrats on being the most mind-bogglingly employed human beings in America, staff of the University of Arizona Women’s Resource Center,” Fox concluded in his article. “You set out to make a difference and you did. By denying women some charity and alienating men who were innocently trying to help. Hooray!” Krista Millay, director of the WRC, sent out an email to her staff detailing her decision to not participate. She said, despite what was said in the Total Frat Move article, the WRC did not cancel AEPi’s event nor does it have the authority to do so. She also said that the WRC did not advocate for the event’s cancellation through protest or any similar conversations. “Jack Kaplan did invite the WRC to attend their ‘Walk a Mile in Her Shoes’ event,” Millay said in the email. “We declined to attend because we do not believe this method of sexual violence prevention reflects our values.” Millay explained that the WRC believes that sexual violence prevention is not a show and that it should actually work to end sexual assault. She added that the WRC does not agree with the humor behind men walking around in heels.
“This work should be survivor-centered and result in real, tangible changes that take time and effort,” Millay wrote. “Many of our fraternity men are doing this work. And it is particularly needed on a campus where a disproportionate percentage of our assaults occur in Greek houses. One funny event, and its media coverage, should not overshadow the hard work that is being done by so many other fraternity men whose quiet but steady commitment doesn’t get a lot of press.” Jack Kaplan was not available for comment, but AEPi’s president, Jonathan Burger, a junior studying political science and Middle Eastern studies, said that Total Frat Move is an unreliable news source and should not be trusted. He also said he was unaware that there was going to be any article until he saw it published. “All I really have to say about the philanthropy event is it’s sad that it had to come down to the WRC not agreeing with everything, but at the end of the day, it was a philanthropy that we were just trying to raise some money for domestic and sexual abuse, and we’re going to work with them and see what we can do together to make it a philanthropy in the spring,” Burger said. Burger declined to comment further on either Kaplan or the article. He emphasized his hope to work with the WRC in the future and raise money for a good cause. “The WRC has extended several invitations to work with Jack and AEPi
LOGAN COOK/THE DAILY WILDCAT
THE WOMEN’S RESORCE CENTER located on the fourth floor of the Student Union inside CSIL. The Women’s Resource Center recently declined to support or participate in Alpha Epsilon Pi’s “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” philanthrophy because they believe the event is not a method that reflects their values.
to create alternative actions that would actually position these campus leaders to change campus culture and create safe spaces for UA students,” Millay said in
DACA LETTER FROM PAGE 1
letter in an act of solidarity. The letter asks all Arizona universities and colleges to “take steps to ensure all students, regardless of background, beliefs or immigration status, will be supported in pursuit of their studies and degree completion.” The letter also calls for a guarantee of student privacy and readily available counseling for DACA students. Alberto Arenas, UA associate professor of environmental and sustainability education, said he signed the letter because he’s had students who either had undocumented family members or were undocumented themselves and “deserved all the help they could get.” “Because in the college of education we’re so concerned about the status and the future of these students, we completely support the idea that DACA should be renewed,” Arenas said. Marcy Wood is an associate professor of mathematics education who also signed the circulating letter. “There was a lot of faculty concerned about how our students were feeling,” Wood
ZI YANG LAI/THE DAILY WILDCAT
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING MAJOR DARIO Andrade Mendoza chooses a book in the UA Main Library on Sept. 1, 2015. Mendoza is an undocumented immigrant with lawful presence under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
said. “I think it’s important that we make sure we protect those students.” UA President Ann Weaver Hart also sent an email to all UA students and employees reaffirming the university’s support for DACA students on Nov. 24. “The UA statement publicly stakes out our position on protecting DACA student information, providing advice and counsel for those students
and ensuring any educational aspiration underway at the UA can be successfully completed regardless of events,” Hart said in the email. Ndekela Sakala, a biochemistry and psychology junior and an immigrant from Zambia, said her parents brought her to the U.S. legally when she was 7 years old, but she said the path to citizenship for all of them was difficult because of the time and expense
her email. “Despite the harassment and outrage I’ve received over AEPi cancelling its event, we are still committed to working with them.”
the process requires. Her own immigration story is one of the motives she had for signing the letter. “As immigrants, we come here to get a better life for ourselves and our families,” Sakala said. “I just want this campus to feel safe for all students. I think we all deserve the opportunity to do the best we can and be as successful as we want to be.” Francy Luna Diaz, a political science junior, emigrated from Colombia to the U.S. in 2011. She also signed the letter after receiving it via email from a professor in the College of Gender and Women’s Studies. “I think it’s important the students in the DACA program are allowed to have the opportunity to get an education,” Luna Diaz said. “Since most of them came here as children, it’s the only country that they know. It’s the only culture and they only place they call home, so denying them the opportunity to get an education and be able to advance in life not only affects them personally but also affects the community in general.” According to a Center for American Progress study, terminating DACA would remove at least $433.4 billion from the U.S. gross domestic
product over a decade. Elizabeth Oglesby, an associate professor of geography and development and Latin American studies, said she signed the letter because, as a professor, she has a professional and ethical responsibility to support students. “Even if there were to be some sort of change with the Trump administration regarding the legal protection for the DACA students, that would not make them any less part of our university community,” Oglesby said. All three professors, Arenas, Wood and Oglesby, said they had not heard of any UA faculty speaking out in opposition of the renewal of DACA. The names on the list of people who have signed the letter have reached beyond campus boundaries as well. Ward 6 councilman Steve Kozachik holds slot number 1,235. “These people are here doing all the things we want all of our students to do,” Kozachik said. “They’re not criminals, they don’t deserve deportation, and we as a university community, and we as a community generally, need to support them.”