TUESDAY DECEMBER 6, 2016 VOLUME 106 ISSUE 17 www.UniversityStar.com
Student Government drafts legislation to bring immigration attorney to campus
Protestors gather around the Hays County Historic Courthouse Nov. 12 during a peaceful protest. Protestors marched from Tantra Coffeehouse to the square. PHOTO BY JENNIFER CHACON | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
By Rae Glassford Assistant News Editor @rae_maybe Between the Monday, Nov. 28 administrative Round Table, the circulation of a petition to designate the university a sanctuary campus, the demonstration of solidarity with undocumented students in the Quad Dec. 1 and governor Greg Abbott’s threat to cut off funding to public institutions in support of the sanctuary campus initiative, it has been a busy week for Texas State officials and students alike. On Friday, Dec. 3, an official statement intended to address the petition was released by Student Government president Andrew Homann. The statement condemned violence and called for dialogue, and explained that Student Government will not condone any action in opposition to the laws of the United States. “Firstly, I want to say that we feel safety is the most important concern,” Homann said. “Every student, regardless of their beliefs and opinions, should feel that their life is being protected here on campus –
that they’re safe to go to class and be active. And while we realize that, the responsibility of student government is to represent all of the student body, and we can’t go against laws in place that the state puts upon us. So, myself and the cabinet cannot at this time support the petition.” The statement does not reflect the personal opinions of every individual member of Student Government’s legislature, just those of the cabinet and executive branch, Homann clarified. “I think one of the things we’ve done is taken the initiative to be active,” Homann said of the importance of communication between government and constituents. “It’s easy to sit back and not respond to this at all, but it’s vital that elected officials voice their opinions on important topics, so we decided to speak out and release a statement.” The statement was released in time to serve as a response not only to the circulation of the sanctuary campus petition by organizations like SCOPE and LULAC, but also to comments made by Texas governor Greg
Abbott via Twitter last Thursday, in which he declared his intention to cut off funding to universities that adopted sanctuary status. “That may be a reality, but we’re going to push for what we believe in,” said LULAC president Julia Estrada about Abbott’s stance. “It’s important that donors to the university know – that everybody in the state of Texas knows – that we take our education very seriously, but we also take everybody else’s education very seriously. Everybody has the right to an education, no matter where you come from or where you’ve been.” Although the statement made clear Student Government’s formal stance, the question of whether its release has successfully mitigated students’ fears remains unclear. “I have known a couple of (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students, and right now they’re worried about what all this means, and what’s going on,” said Latin Music Studies professor and ensembles coordinator John Lopez. “On the day after the elections, one of my
students confided that they feel their future is at stake.” Seeing as undocumented people must voluntarily come forward to offer personal information such as names and addresses in order to register with the DACA program, many DACA students are concerned that such information could be used against them if the act is repealed, Lopez said. “As a professor and a teacher, I feel really helpless and sad because these are very, very hardworking and incredible students and now there might be a chance that their dreams may not be fulfilled,” Lopez said. “The whole point of DACA is trying to get undocumented students a social security number, to create a pathway to help them fulfill their dreams. And it just takes a swipe of the pen in an executive order to make all of that come crashing down.” Lopez said that he has heard other faculty members voice similar concerns on behalf of their students. “It’s just a really unfortunate situation because in my experience,
the DACA students I’ve worked with have been some of the best students I have ever had in all my history of teaching,” Lopez said. Since Lopez has been granted a sabbatical this semester, he was not on campus in the days immediately following the election. However, he found out that on the morning of Nov. 9, one of the music program’s mariachi students reported that she had been verbally harassed while walking through the Quad. “She said another student followed her, yelling at her to go back to Mexico and telling her she’s not wanted here,” Lopez said. “I found out about it that night, and I broke my sabbatical to come out to campus and talk to my students. In all my 23 years of teaching, I have never ever brought a conversation about politics into the classroom until then.” Right now, the only thing he can tell his students that lots of things that were said on the campaign trail will probably never happen, but all we can do is wait and see, Lopez said. The coalition to make
Texas State a sanctuary campus remains active at the university. However, another solution may be in the works. “From what I understand, there is a piece of legislation that will be written, introduced and voted upon by the senate next semester (since we have adjourned for this semester), which is meant to address the same issues that the petition does, in some way,” Homann said. “We have had some brief talks with university administration, and they’re looking into specific parts of the petition and deciding what the best route for Texas State could be.” According to Student Government senator and director of student services Cutter Gonzalez, the draft of legislation Homann was referring to actually pre-dates the arrival of the sanctuary campus petition by several months. See,
CAMPUS, pg.. 5.
Sights & Sounds of Christmas
Year in review inside See,
CHRISTMAS, pg.. 3.