Wednesday, TAUP jointly released a letter with Temple Student Government, voicing our opposition to President Trump’s unconscionable decision to phase out Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). There, we urged all of us to contact our elected officials to make DACA permanent and to call on people to attend a meeting today from 3:00-4:45 at the Howard Gittis Student Center 200C to discuss how to respond most effectively to this assault on 800,000 people brought to our country—which is now their country, too—as children. (We also urge anybody interested to attend “Creating a Welcoming Campus Community” at Paley Library on Wednesday, September 20th, at noon.)
Our national union, the American Federation of Teachers, has also released a statement. We were heartened, too, by the letter yesterday from The Faculty Senate, which outlines some concrete steps faculty and librarians can take to support their students, both in and out of the classroom.
TAUP additionally recommends that concerned members consult the following resources assembled by The Stephen and Sandra Sheller Center for Social Justice at Temple’s Law School. It offers trustworthy and current information about this issue as well as contact information for local agencies that provide assistance to immigrants.
Finally, we call on Temple’s Administration to express their support for DACA. President Englert signed on to a letter defending DACA back in November, but it is imperative that Temple raise its voice again, as Penn State, Pitt, and many, many other universities have already done to speak forcefully against this recent decision and to outline steps the Temple community can take to protect Dreamers.
Note: Earlier this week we promised to post photos documenting our students honoring their teachers at graduation last Spring. Because of the urgency of this and other matters we have had to postpone that message until next week.