Dear Chancellor Woodson and incoming Chancellor Howell,
We, the NC State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have learned with chagrin about the departure from the U.S. of two NC State international students after their visas were arbitrarily and inexplicably revoked.
Many more international students are seeing their visas revoked in North Carolina and across the country and some are being forcibly deported.
The Trump administration’s attacks on international faculty and students, based on vague claims by the secretary of state and conducted without any semblance of due process, not only violate the First Amendment but also strike at the heart of academic freedom and echo some of the darkest moments in U.S. history.
The AAUP strongly and unequivocally condemns this targeting of international students and scholars.
We call on NC State University to take concrete steps to support students and scholars at risk. At a moment when the future of higher education and free speech are in peril, universities have obligations beyond doing no harm. If the university fails to protect all students and scholars, it jeopardizes the safety and academic freedom of all students and scholars.
Our AAUP chapter is committed to ensuring the safety of our university community members. We therefore ask the following:
-
The University should not turn over personal student information in response to Title VI investigations. For a full discussion of this matter, please see the AAUP’s public letter to the offices of general counsels.
-
The University should make a clear commitment to avoid voluntary cooperation or information sharing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies charged with facilitating deportation or other forms of immigration enforcement.
-
The University should make a clear commitment to not comply with Section 3 of the expanded Executive Order 13899, which calls for universities to “monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds and for ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.”
-
The University should keep international students enrolled in the event of visa revocation, legal status termination, detention and/or deportation.
-
The University should allow these international students and scholars to continue their studies and research remotely, if necessary.
-
The University should ensure that graduate students and workers whose enrollment is contingent upon funding through graduate teaching appointments or fellowships can continue their coursework, research and teaching appointments. This may mean that the university covers the increased cost of assigning additional teaching appointments to a graduate student not residing in the U.S. The University should similarly ensure that international students holding research assistantships from federal grants can receive financial support to continue their coursework and research at the level necessary to maintain their visa status should those grants be suspended or terminated.
-
The University should devote resources to communicating reliable, timely information to international students and scholars, including immediate notification of changes in their legal status.
-
The University should provide and pay for legal counsel for those students and scholars whose visas have been revoked.
-
The University should work swiftly and affirmatively — through lawsuits, if necessary — to stop the termination of legal status of students and scholars without any due process.
NC State is a great university in large part due to the contributions, intellectual, cultural and financial, of international students and scholars. Their presence and participation are essential for achieving our land-grant missions of instruction, knowledge creation and service. Defending the rights of international students and scholars is also a moral obligation, grounded in our shared commitment to learn from and not repeat the terrible mistakes of the past.
It is, therefore, absolutely incumbent upon NC State University leaders to speak up for the rights and safety of international students and scholars as you would for any member of the Pack.
Sincerely,
The NC State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors
