The condition of oppressed students across the country grows more and more frightening each passing day. Across the country, millions of Americans’ rights are being violated at an alarming rate, especially following the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk, in which the Trump administration has seized the opportunity to clamp down on the public. In order to combat this at the college level, universities, including Grand Valley State University, should declare themselves “sanctuary campuses.”
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order labeling Antifa a “terrorist organization.” While the order only specifically mentions “Antifa,” the text’s definition is wide enough to sweep in nearly all left-wing groups that openly oppose fascism. This is no coincidence. This action taken by the Trump administration is meant solely to suppress left-wing organizing. It is an attempt to silence a movement growing stronger against the fragile administration. In nearly the same breath as the suppression of left-wing organizing, Trump has begun to crackdown on transgender Americans, attempting to manufacture a threat of “violent, transgender ideology.”
I’m going to bring the aforementioned pieces a little closer to home, as I believe GVSU has an especially important role to play in keeping students safe.
With the federal government’s open encroachment on human rights across the country, many campus activist organizations have begun to call upon their university leadership to stand up to the federal government and protect the civil liberties of their students. At Arizona State University, the school’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) chapter has called for ASU to become a sanctuary campus. The group is campaigning for a place where undocumented, queer and otherwise marginalized students can rely on university administration to defend them if federal authorities come after students because of who they are. If the federal government attempts to encroach on civil liberties, it is the responsibility of the university to refuse to comply with the federal government, and to protect the students under its watch.
Here is where I wish to appeal to GVSU leadership: each and every one of you carries a responsibility to protect the students whose tuition funds this institution. It is your duty to ensure that students can focus on their studies, their friendships and their lives as college students, without living in fear of a knock at the door in the middle of the night.
No GVSU student should have to wonder if their race, gender, sexual orientation or religion makes them a target of the federal government. No one should fear they could be detained by immigration authorities on their graduation day. It is the responsibility of GVSU administrators to ensure these nightmarish possibilities are never realized upon their students in a time when such threats are becoming increasingly real and common.
