On Wednesday, Western Michigan University announced that six of its students now have uncertain immigration status after their records were deleted from a federal database.
On Thursday, the Board of Trustees held a regularly-scheduled meeting, where international students' status was a major concern of demonstrators who filled part of the room.
The protestors turned their backs during the meeting. They wore signs with slogans like “neutrality is complicity” and "when they come for us, will you turn your backs?"
They oppose what they say is the University’s failure to take a stance against the war in Gaza, along with the Trump administration’s efforts to deport international students.
Elena Tancredi is a third-year student at Western. She wore a watermelon yarmulke symbolizing her Jewish faith, and her support for Palestine.
Tancredi said what is happening is being done in "the name of quote-unquote 'countering antisemitism.' Students are being kidnapped off of the streets because of their views. That does not make Jewish students safer.”
Jessyca Olivera is a PhD student in mathematics.
“International students, my classmates, colleagues and friends are living in fear. Despite this, the university had done the bare minimum to show them that they have support.”
Olivera wants WMU to join a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan against the Trump administration for terminating international students’ visas.
Board Chair Shelly Edgerton said things are happening so fast its hard to keep up, but she said the administration is "trying to adjust to that and figure out what what can be the best route for WMU."
Protestors at the meeting said if any students are deported, they should be able to finish their degrees. Edgerton told WMUK the administration plans to facilitate that.
“If someone gets, let's just say, gets deported back home, they have an opportunity to finish their degree online. So we're not just saying, ‘Hey, you're gone.’ You know, ‘thank you for three years.’
"No, you're going to have an opportunity to finish that degree and I think those steps are being taken right now," Edgerton said.
