DACA

K President Signs GLCA Statement Regarding DACA

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Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez has joined 10 other Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) presidents in a joint statement titled “Pathways for Childhood Arrivals” regarding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

GLCA Statement Stetson Hall in Fall
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez has joined 10 other Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) presidents in a joint statement regarding DACA.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last Tuesday that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals order would end in six months. The GLCA statement supports a legislative solution to DACA.

“As a consortium of colleges in the Great Lakes region, we urge legislative action in support of the goals of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program,” the statement says. “The removal of this program will eliminate an important pathway to opportunity for motivated, constructive and committed young people.”

The GLCA statement adds, “We believe the threat to the future of these young people is also a threat to the values we work so hard to instill. Dismantling DACA will undermine a tenet of our nation which has been present throughout our history: that hard work, achievement, and productive contribution to our society matter more than ethnicity or place of birth.”

President Gonzalez also joined Western Michigan University President Edward Montgomery and Kalamazoo Valley Community College President Marilyn Schlack in a statement regarding DACA last week.

 

Kalamazoo’s 3 College Presidents Address DACA

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A message about DACA developments from the presidents of Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Western Michigan University.

To our campus communities:

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonalez Discusses DACA
Jorge G. Gonzalez

Our hearts go out to all DACA students, and we stand committed to the idea that their success as students and members of our community enhances the success of each of our respective institutions.

This is a community that cares deeply about education and the role it plays in realizing the American dream. Students, we support your efforts to inform your fellow students and our communities of your plight as you face the possibility of losing the status you have gained under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals order.

Support for the retention of DACA as a way of showing our nation’s compassion and basic sense of fairness crosses party lines and is steadily growing among Americans from every walk of life. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch and several other Republican leaders urged President Trump not to end the program. On the other side of the aisle, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called on her colleagues to protect dreamers and “shield families from separation and heartbreak.”

With growing and heartfelt support for DACA protections and the widespread dismay at the idea of losing DACA, we believe the time has come for Congress to legislate a solution. This is an opportunity for all to make their views known and work with their elected representatives.

We are proud of all of you, student dreamers, for your courage and for using your voices to make the cause personal and more understandable to those around you. Our campuses are better places for your efforts.

Edward Montgomery
President, Western Michigan University

Jorge G. Gonzalez
President, Kalamazoo College

Marilyn Schlack
President, Kalamazoo Valley Community College