The Graduate Student Senate voted in support of the sanctuary campus petition after a visit from the petition’s creator, professor Michaela Walsh.
Walsh, an ethnic studies professor, addressed President Mary Ellen Mazey’s denial of the sanctuary campus petition during the meeting.
“Contrary, actually, to the rhetoric that President Mazey put forth,” Walsh said, “…everything that is in the sanctuary petition that we’ve been advocating for is within the law.”
The petition, written by Walsh, calls for the University to “support and protect all of BGSU’s students and workers, regardless of their citizenship status, religion, ethnicity, or national origin,” “not cooperate with federal ICE authorities regarding deportations or immigration raids,” and protect personal information of all staff and students.
The electronic petition, which currently has 579 signatures, also offers additional protections for immigrants currently protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival policy.
GSS voted in support of a sanctuary campus with an overwhelming majority.
“By voting on that, students are admitting that we need safe space, all of us, regardless of whether you are international student or not. That affects ethnic, religious [and] sexual minorities,” GSS President Amira Hassnaoui said after the Friday meeting.
The support from the GSS body contrasts Mazey’s stance on the issue.
“As a public university, we must, and are required to, follow all laws,” she said on Tuesday. “And therefore we will work within the federal laws, and I will not support the petition to become a sanctuary campus.”
For Walsh, Mazey’s reasoning is not sufficient.
“Her argument that it is outside of the law is inaccurate,” Walsh said.
In lieu of her support of the sanctuary campus status, Mazey has put her support behind the BRIDGE Act currently on the floor of the US Senate. According to Mazey, the Bridge Act offers many of the same protections that DACA currently offers.
But, according to Walsh, Mazey’s blanket alternative of the BRIDGE Act ignores other policies that the petition calls for, including supporting other vulnerable minorities.
Despite a similar risk of losing federal funding, over 100 universities nationally have taken on a sanctuary campus status, Walsh said
“One fear that I think that President Mazey has, which is a legitimate fear, is that federal funding would be withdrawn,” Walsh said. “Now this has nothing to do with her legality argument. As far as I know, Kasich has said nothing in terms of making a move to withdraw federal funding.”
According to Walsh, as with anything bureaucratic, it would take time for funding to be withdrawn, and notice would be given.
“If identifying as a sanctuary campus makes us vulnerable, there’s no reason why President Mazey or this University cannot enact all of the policies that we’re asking for…and she can call it whatever she wants,” Walsh said.
Walsh doesn’t care what the protection is called, “So long as the vulnerable in our community are protected,” she said.
According to Mazey, there are 11 DACA students – students protected under the DACA policy – at the University.
“I think that she released that number because it’s not a very high number, so strategically people might wonder why should we be mobilized to get behind 11 students, which is beside the point,” Walsh said.
The 11 number, according to Walsh, does not address the number of undocumented students enrolled at the University who would also benefit from a sanctuary campus status.
“We’re not trying to go off the laws or break any laws, or affect any federal budget. We absolutely understand Dr. Mazey’s point, but it’s a simple act of support and then we will see what’s going to be next,” Hassnaoui said.
Click here to learn more about the petition.
Click here to learn more about what President Mazey said on Tuesday.
