Discretionary Statements

The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of all faculty and graduate students in the Department of History, the Regents of the University of California, or the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Contents

Statements on the Rights of International Students, Staff, and Faculty by the Senate Faculty of the Department of History, May 2, 2025

Statement on the Rights of International Students, Staff, and Faculty

Dear President Drake, Provost Newman, Senate Chair Cheung, Chancellor Larive, EVC/Campus Provost Kletzer, Humanities Dean Alinder, VPGSA Biehl,VPDUE Hughey, and UCSC Senate Chair McCarthy,

The UCSC History Department supports the urgent call by the Council of University of California Faculty Associations and University Council-AFT Local 1474 to address the revocation of visas and deportation of international students at the University of California. Students across the UC system had their I-20 Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records terminated by the Department of Homeland Security, with at least one deportation occurring. 

While many records have been restored, we are concerned that in the future, student visas may be canceled and Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)  records terminated  without warning and due process. Such actions upend the lives of students directly affected by the termination. Moreover, they lead to anxiety and fear among other international students.

To be clear, our students and faculty are living in fear and uncertainty, and understandably so. This fear is not just about the concrete possibility of legal status termination and all that implies, but also potential detainment or deportation, or needing to suddenly leave the U.S. and have one’s life upended. There is also the fear and uncertainty that social media posts, long-past arrests, or even temporary holds on a visa holder’s student account could result in erroneous or random visa revocations with little oversight. These abrupt and apparently arbitrary cancellations throw students’ and scholars’ lives into crisis.

The UCSC History Department affirms that international students, staff, and faculty are an invaluable part of the community and crucial to our research vision and teaching goals. We are deeply concerned about the sharing of any immigration information and the possible presence of ICE on our campus. To support the safety and well-being of all students, staff, and faculty, we call on UCOP to guarantee the following:

• First, the University should guarantee that each campus can and will provide legal support at no cost to those whose visas are revoked.
• Second, UC must ensure that any student—undergraduate or graduate—whose visa and/or legal status is revoked, and who is subsequently detained or deported, can remain enrolled at their campus and continue their program remotely through to completion. We urge further discussion with the UCSC Graduate Division to ensure the necessary structures are in place for graduate students in particular. Still, this proposal must not obscure the gravity of what these students are facing. Detention and deportation are not administrative inconveniences—they are deeply violent disruptions to academic and personal life. UCSC’s response must reflect the seriousness of that harm.
• Third, if any student or scholar receiving a fellowship, stipend, or salary from the University is deported, they continue to receive that funding until the end of their contract or relevant course of study.
• Fourth, any staff or faculty member whose visa is revoked and who is detained and/or deported be given the opportunity to work remotely and receive compensation equal to their salary.
• Fifth, the University, as sponsor of the legal status of international students and scholars, seeks action in the federal courts to halt termination of legal status without due process or prior communication to the University.

As UCSC history faculty, we insist that UC has a moral obligation to protect students’ and scholars’ legal rights against this treatment. In recruiting these students and scholars to UC, we implicitly assured them that the U.S. in general, and UC in particular, would be their new academic home. We have drawn strength from their ideas, work, and energy, and we owe them the same efforts in return. Moreover, supporting these students and scholars is a practical imperative.  UC’s global standing rests on its ability to serve as a welcoming and secure home for the world’s brightest minds. If we fail to offer urgent and concrete support, we risk becoming a place no scholar of conscience or talent will choose. The UCOP letter issued on April 4 is both insufficient and disheartening. Its vague reference to a “fluid situation” and general promise to “do what we can” offer no tangible policies or resources. This lack of substantive commitment undermines the trust and safety of our international students, scholars, staff, and faculty when they need UC to stand firmly by them.

We reiterate our call to the University leadership to refuse to comply with or otherwise aid in any orders to disclose personal information of students, scholars, staff, or faculty or otherwise cooperate with the DOJ, DHS, ICE or other government agencies involved in the investigation, prosecution, or deportation of members of the UC community that has not been compelled by a federal warrant or subpoena.  

Other universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Minnesota, and Tufts University, have refused to acquiesce. We expect no less from the country’s leading public university.

We call upon you to develop, implement, and publicize a plan regarding these issues as soon as possible. We further call upon the systemwide and UCSC Academic Senate to address this issue independently from University leadership. We ask that they apply appropriate pressure on the University to ensure it meets its obligations to all students, staff, and faculty regardless of any threats from a government agency.

Sincerely,

Out of 27 eligible voting members, the Department of History votes 19 in favor, 2 waived, and 6 absent, not voting. This statement should not be taken as a position or endorsement of the University of California, or of the UCSC campus, as a whole.