UC Berkeley may soon take on a new look in an attempt to be more supportive of undocumented students.
Nineteen recommendations released Monday by a campus task force on undocumented student life range from the placing of signs or symbols to identify people willing to help undocumented students to the establishment of an advising position dedicated to undocumented student welfare.
The recommendations — submitted to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau in May — have been approved for implementation, according to campus Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Gibor Basri, who heads the Task Force on Undocumented Members of the On-Campus Community.
Among the recommendations is the creation of a part-time staff position focused specifically on helping undocumented students without putting those students at risk by revealing their status to a university employee.
“Anyone appointed to this position would be extremely sensitive to the information,” Basri said. “The hope would be to decrease the risk to undocumented students, not increase it.”
Jessica Lopez, an undocumented fourth-year student at UC Berkeley, said that she currently has fears of revealing her status to administrative staff at the university.
“Even at Berkeley, there is still a stigma attached to being an illegal immigrant, that it’s a crime for me to be here,” she said.
Lopez said that the creation of such a position would go a long way toward quelling her fears.
The campus’ initiative to assist undocumented students is the only of its kind in the UC system, said UC spokesperson Leslie Sepuka.
The report also recommends that the campus continue its current policing practice of not prioritizing immigration enforcement, maintaining that immigration is a federal issue. The report emphasizes that these policies should be made clear to undocumented students, as fear of law enforcement often keeps undocumented immigrants from reporting crimes.
For the 2008-09 academic year, around 75 UC Berkeley students were undocumented — a very small portion of the total student population of approximately 35,000 — according to that year’s Annual Report on AB 540 Tuition Exemptions.
But despite the relatively small number of benefiting students, Basri said the campus Division of Equity and Inclusion’s commitment to equal rights for all students supersedes any costs or the relatively localized impact of the report’s recommendations.
“It’s not a matter of cost, but the carrying out of a mission,” Basri said.
Although the chancellor has approved the “grab bag” of recommendations, Basri said that the specific logistics of implementation and the total cost of implementation have yet to be determined.
The campus-level initiative comes at a time of changing legal stance towards undocumented students statewide.
In July, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the first part of the California DREAM Act — which allowed undocumented students access to private financial aid — into law. The second half of the act, which would grant undocumented students access to public financial aid, currently awaits his signature.
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Jessica Lopez, an undocumented fourth-year student at UC Berkeley, said that she currently has fears of revealing her status to administrative staff at the university.“Even at Berkeley, there is still a stigma attached to being an illegal immigrant, that it’s a crime for me to be here,” she said.that stigma….well its probably because it IS a crime for you to be here.
The students in the USA illegally should return to their home countries and work toward changing those countries – where they are citizens. Stand up and be courageous in the home country. To plunder taxpayers’ money and give that money to students in the USA illegally is breaking yet more laws. The government should focus upon American students – who are suffering – and help fund struggling American students.
University of California Berkeley does not support instate Californians. UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau displaces qualified for public university at Cal Californians for FOREIGN $50,600 students.
Californians subsidize foreign student $50,600 foreign student tuition as Foreign tuition does not include the amortization of the buildingss etc that have been paid for through California Taxes.
UC Regents Chair Lansing, UC President Yudof agree the displacing of instate Californians by Foreigners.
email opinions to UC Board of Regents [email protected]
Can’t we please drop the ridiculously P.C. conceit of calling these people “Undocumented Immigrants” for once?
These folks aren’t undocumented, they’re ILLEGAL immigrants. I don’t care how you feel about the issue, but let’s call a spade a spade.
I truly hope whoever accepts the job of looking after the illegal aliens will be sued for aiding and abetting the deliberate circumvention of U.S. immigration law.
California law explicitly recognizes the right of these students to attend the University through AB540. The educational mission of Cal must be equally accessible to all legitimate students, and we have focused services for a variety of sub-types of students with special circumstances not covered by general student services (eg. disabled students, international students, engineering students, etc.).
[California law explicitly recognizes the right of these students to attend the University through AB540.]
California law can not override federal law on immigration issues.
[The educational mission of Cal must be equally accessible to all legitimate students]
People here illegally are not legitimate students, nor are the taxpayers obligated to pay their bills.
Once again, the UC system screams about “budget cuts” while finding new ways to waste the taxpayer’s money. Proof positive that the educational bureaucracy is completely out of touch with reality. And you clueless people wonder why there’s a Tea Party?
You do realize that people who are undocumented generate revenue via payroll taxes, right? And that these are the children of parents who escaped abject poverty and violence in order to take care of their families? And that those who are undocumented are among the most at risk of being unemployed in a recession? Might it be reasonable for the state’s university both to scream at the legislature for not providing sufficient funding, while shifting also funds in its own budget to offer extra help to those most in need?
Payroll taxes? If your concerns are so strong, do something YOURSELF, instead of abdicating your personal sense of obligation to others. A cowardly and disingenous suggestion on your part.
You do realize that higher education at California public universities is a limited privilege, not an entitlement? “Need” is not its basis. There are millions of illegal migrants who came to California to escape poverty. We aren’t going to enroll them all in college.
Attendance at UCB is an earned privilege (through our admissions process). Those who have earned it have earned whatever support the campus can offer in carrying out its mission to graduate well-educated people.
“whatever support the campus can offer”
But you’re glossing over the crux of the matter. Some students can’t be offered financial aid for various reasons. AB130 made some eligible for non-state aid. AB131 intends to offer state aid, but the allowability remains undecided.
[You do realize that people who are undocumented generate revenue via payroll taxes, right?]
You DO realize that the people you call “undocumented” (in reality ILLEGAL ALIENS) often work under the table, so that they don’t have to pay any taxes, don’t you. Secondly, when they do work and have taxes withheld, it’s because they have supplied phony Social Security numbers, which is another crime. Last but not least, the bottom 50% of all income earners (which is where most illegals fall) only pay 3-4% of all taxes. The idea that illegals are even paying anywhere NEAR the cost of the education, health care, or other social services they consume is ludicrous. Instead, that money is coming out of the pockets of legal citizen taxpayers.
The idea that those in the country legally (natives and legal immigrants alike) should have to pay the bills for those in the country illegally is bad enough, but when one realizes that the children of those illegals are enjoying benefits that are denied of the children who are paying the taxes, that’s a situation that’s morally reprehensible. You blind advocates of giving away our country’s hard-earned wealth to people who aren’t here legally have no clue how in the pursuit of your silly theoretical cosmic justice for the rest of the planet, how you’re committing a gross injustice to your own fellow citizens in the process…
[You blind advocates of giving away our country's hard-earned wealth to
people who aren't here legally have no clue how in the pursuit of your
silly theoretical cosmic justice for the rest of the planet, how you're
committing a gross injustice to your own fellow citizens in the
process...]
“Our” country. Read some history.
Also, way to scapegoat hardworking poor brown people as the cause of economic armageddon. Your racism is showing.
“Giving away our hard earned wealth.” You might want to look somwhere else for who’s actually giving away “our” wealth and who’s actually taking it.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/09/04/opinion/04reich-graphic.html?ref=sunday
[Also, way to scapegoat hardworking poor brown people as the cause of economic armageddon. Your racism is showing.]
As usual, lefties like you play the race card when you can’t win the argument. Ever consider that many of the people who lose out when we favor illegals are “people of color themselves”? Every dollar handed out to illegals is one less dollar available to black or legal resident hispanics.
It’s not about race, it’s about whether one is in this country legally or not. How about using a bit of intellectual honesty for a change before you smear others, jerk?