Madison, Wis. (July 8, 2020) – The announced update to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week is deeply troubling and confusing at best; at its worst
it is a policy that clearly embraces xenophobia and hatred.
Edgewood College has welcomed students from countries around the world for decades. These students are valued members of our community, and of the Greater Madison community. The announcement, coming at a time when our
state and our country navigate a pandemic, makes the cost of returning to a fully-online delivery of classes (which we did for the safety of our community this Spring) inordinately high, as such a decision would result
in the forced removal of students from our campus. That is simply intolerable.
In our community, we have named the viruses that we currently face: COVID-19, and racism. We are taking steps to mitigate the risk of the former on our campus by following the directives of our public health agencies and
professionals. We will continue to do so this fall when we welcome students to campus for in-person classes. We are aware that the directives of those agencies can change as we all combat this pandemic. But we will not
falter in our commitment to our students – all of our students – when faced with racism and hatred.
We at Edgewood College unequivocally reject the xenophobia and hatred reflected in this announcement, and we urge our representatives and all elected officials to do the same.
Respectfully,
Andrew P. Manion, Ph.D.
President
Cc: Wisconsin Delegation
Senator Tammy Baldwin
709 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Senator Ron Johnson
328 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan
1421 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
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