Joseph Gulotta-
The Stout Student Association has brought forward a case to make the University of Wisconsin Stout a sanctuary campus. In reaction to President Donald J. Trump’s travel ban, the Stout Student Association is joining with other campus student governance organizations across the UW System to begin transforming their campuses into sanctuary campuses.
The latest proposal defines a sanctuary campus as “a campus that will protect all students, faculty and staff from intimidation, unfair investigation and deportation by campus, state and federal officers.” On January 27, President Trump signed an executive order that put a stay on immigration from many countries, with seven predominantly Muslim nations receiving the longest of this stay on immigration.
The SSA’s resolution calls attention to the idea that immigrants from all countries are what make UW–Stout a great campus, saying in the proposal: “The Faculty Senate affirms its faith in, and commitment to, UW–Stout’s enduring goals to ‘Recruit and retain a diverse university population’ and to ‘Foster a collegial, trusting and tolerant campus climate.’”
SSA senator William Chang shared more about the proposal, saying it was to “Ensure that [international students] know they are safe, and that we have a plan that’s there to ensure that they are not being questioned or arrested or being taken away by federal agents.”
The creator of the proposal, and prior senator Connor Hobart, stated that the proposal was for
“undocumented students, those that are already living in the U.S.,” and that the proposal’s primary goal was “to level the playing field for those students. One of the big parts of the resolution is to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, which Wisconsin offered for a short time.”
The proposal is in its early phases. The next step in the process to becoming a sanctuary campus lies with the University of Wisconsin System president. The SSA, along with its counterparts on other campuses, will present this proposal to president Ray Cross. From there, the aim of SSA is to have this proposal see a real impact on Stout students.