W E E K D AY E D I T I O N | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 - 2 2 , 2 0 17 | T W I C E W E E K LY I N P R I N T | O U D A I LY. C O M
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5-STAR RECRUIT COMING TO OU • 5
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UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Aerospace engineering freshman Carlos Rubio holds a photo of him and his grandmother in Mexico when he was a baby. Rubio lived in Jalisco, Mexico, before immigrating to Tulsa.
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Students fear deportation after Trump’s promises ANDREW CLARK • @CLARKY_TWEETS
hen Maribel He r n a n d e z w a s 2 years old, she and her pregnant mother began their journey to the United States from Juan Aldama in Zacatecas, Mexico. They rode in a series of trucks for hundreds of miles with others on other journeys, avoiding border patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and helicopters. Sickness in the trucks was rampant — if someone got sick, everyone got sick. Eventually, they arrived at the Rio Grande, crossed, and made it to the United States. Hernandez and her mother later reunited with Hernandez’s father, who had already come to the United States by plane, in Oklahoma City. They’ve been there ever since. Hernandez applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals soon after President Barack Obama’s administration created it in June 2012. The
program allows undocumented people who entered the United States. as minors and me et other criteria to receive renewable two-year relief from deportation and makes them eligible for work permits. Hernandez is now a political science sophomore with an uncertain future in a tumultuous political climate. And she’s not alone: Jabar Shumate, vice president for the university community, said admissions’ office data shows there are 75 undocumented students at OU. During his campaign, President Donald Trump said he would repeal DACA, calling it “illegal amnesty.” He has since softened his stance on DACA, though, saying at a White House press conference Feb. 16 that it’s a “difficult subject” for him. DACA’s future is up in the air — the Trump administration may repeal or change the program, but no one is certain of what will happen.
“The country runs on stability and confidence. Our country doesn’t run on chaos and misdirection.” STEVEN LANGER, IMMIGRATION ATTOURNEY
U.S. TACKLING IMMIGRATION “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you,” Trump said pointing at people in a crowd on June 16, 2015, when he announced his candidacy. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Hernandez remembers when Trump said this. She thought of her parents. “They sacrificed their entire lives just for me. … and to hear someone say that Mexico sends it worst, when all I have ever seen is its best … and for someone to run their campaign on such hateful words, it was really awful,” she said.
Carlos Rubio, aerospace engineering freshman from Jalisco, Mexico, who is also undocumented, said people who agree with Trump’s rhetoric don’t see who immigrants really are. “They don’t see what’s good from them and what they can bring to society,” he said. Trump has placed a lot of focus on immigration since he took office. Five days into his presidency, he signed an executive order to move forward with the construction of a wall to block the southern U.S. border. On Jan. 27, he signed an executive order indefinitely suspending the admission of Syrian refugees and temporarily banning travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries. On Feb. 17, The Associated Press reported that the Department of Homeland see DACA page 2
Freshman retention rate at all-time high About 97 percent of first-year students remained enrolled HANNAH PIKE @h_pike_
The retention rate this year of freshmen between their fall and spring semesters at OU was the highest its ever been. Ac c o rd i n g t o t h e O U Institutional Research and Reporting office, 96.8 percent of freshmen enrolled fall 2016 also enrolled spring 2017. “The high retention rate is an achievement of the whole OU family,” Kyle Harper, OU senior vice president and provost, said in an email. “It starts with the extraordinary talent and hard work of our students. Then it takes dedicated faculty and staff around them to support the goal of student
success.” Harper said in the email that students choose to leave OU for a variety of reasons, which can be “academic, social or financial,” or often a combination. “Our philosophy is to try to help students on an individual basis, because everyone’s story is different,” Harper said in the email. OU’s official retention rate is a reflection of what percentage of the freshman class stays enrolled from one fall to the next. Harper said in the email that two years ago, the goal was to reach 92 percent, which they thought would take five to seven years to achieve. “Already crossing the 90 (percent) mark puts us among the best public universities anywhere (top 35 or so),” Harper said in the email. “And to consider the fact that we do it
with so little state funding, and that we prioritize being a place of opportunity for students of all backgrounds, makes it even more remarkable.” In 2005, the retention rate was 84.6 percent, according to the OU Institutional Research and Reporting office. In 2015, it increased 4.2 percent from the previous year, more than any year since 2005, and reached 90.4 percent. “We are constantly striving to achieve the highest retention rate we can,” Harper said in the email. “We are trying to raise money for scholarships and be smarter with the needbased aid we have. We are working to improve teaching in the classroom and outreach to students who are facing challenges.” Hannah Pike
hmaepike@gmail.com
CAITLYN EPES/THE DAILY
Students walk down the South Oval Thursday. The University of Oklahoma achieved a student retention rate of 96.8 percent for 2016-2017.