Monday, January 30, 2017

Trump's immigration ban triggers panic at universities

"Their whole dreams are shattered," said Dina Katabi, professor at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. "Imagine being in the middle of your new life you always dreamed of, you're doing your PhD -- everything looks well, and suddenly somebody closes the door."

Katabi, who was born in Syria, was hustling to finish a paper with her students Friday afternoon when news of the executive order broke. Suddenly, the work stopped. Shock, disbelief and concern filled the room. Some of her students were born in Iran. On the other side of the country, Sam Haghighi, president of the Iranian Students Association at Washington State University, began receiving a flurry of text messages from friends. "What are we going to do? How are we going to respond? What is going to happen?"

He stayed up until 4 a.m. Saturday, watching an online spreadsheet where Iranians were tracking whether they'd been able to enter the country. The later it got, the worse things looked.

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9 comments:

  1. Antsy Academic ArthurJanuary 30, 2017 at 6:51:00 AM CST

    Meanwhile, administration only has time to comment on the latest baseball scores. Guns on campus? Intimidation and life changing discrimination against students and faculty? What? Didn't you notice we won the baseball?!

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    1. Contingent CassandraJanuary 30, 2017 at 12:57:00 PM CST

      While I wish our president showed more respect for teaching faculty (or was even willing to fake it),I must say he wrote a very nice, very effective letter, naming distinguished faculty, administrators, and alumni who are immigrants, including some who could at some point in their lives have been excluded by the order, and pointing out the value of their contributions to the university and the nation. He also linked to a somewhat shorter and milder, but still effective, statement from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities.

      Given how dependent many colleges and universities (including some in extremely out-of-the-way places) are on international students these days, opposing the ban strikes me as a no-brainer.

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    2. Antsy Academic ArthurJanuary 31, 2017 at 1:10:00 PM CST

      That sounds wonderful! Our President made a statement that amounted to "we like you, I guess" and "we're monitoring the situation". It amounted to "we'll probably miss you when you're gone". Weak, disappointing, ... but I probably shouldn't be surprised.

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  2. Compound CalicoJanuary 30, 2017 at 8:02:00 AM CST

    And this.

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    1. Snarky WriterJanuary 30, 2017 at 8:15:00 AM CST

      OMG do NOT read the comments. People are horrifying.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2017 at 10:13:00 AM CST

      Indeed never read any comments. Except here! :)

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    3. Perfesser SlaughterJanuary 30, 2017 at 7:59:00 PM CST

      Of course, I read some comments.

      Delete
  3. Contingent CassandraJanuary 30, 2017 at 1:04:00 PM CST

    I'm reading through student self-introductions, many of which mention origins and/or family abroad, and wondering whether I should address the situation directly, or just let my university president's excellent statement (see above) and the non-discrimination statement already on the syllabus speak for themselves.

    My main concern is that some students will become distracted, either by concern about their own or family members' status/ability to travel, or by a desire to help/demonstrate. Heck, I'm feeling a bit distracted myself. I'll probably just leave it for the moment, but I'm afraid this is going to be one of those semesters when a good many students fall behind for reasons with which I'm sympathetic, but which can't erase the fact that the semester ends when it ends (often sooner than one expects), and, one way or another, work must be done. I may compromise by doing a bit more prodding of students who seem to be falling behind than usual.

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  4. Suzy from Square StateFebruary 5, 2017 at 4:23:00 PM CST

    Thanks so much, Bubba, I've been missing RYS/CM/MP/ soon much these past two weeks. I didn't even log on to my alias name account. And now I found that you guys are still here - hugs all around! Somehow, I just can't muster enough energy to be angry with my snowflakes when the big orange snowflake is bringing America crashing and burning to the ground. Stay save, and keep calling your Congresspeople!

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