This week, Pitt faced backlash over a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Virtual Career Expo despite no University affiliation with the event.
Some Pitt students and community organizations expressed concern over the presence of the Expo on Pitt’s Career Central event calendar. The virtual event, which took place nationwide on Feb. 18, was removed from the Career Central event page before it occurred.
A separate Feb. 26 CBP event, which some suspected was a rescheduled date for the Feb. 18 Expo, was also removed from Pitt’s Career Central calendar.
The recruitment events come in the wake of nationwide protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a separate department under the Department of Homeland Security. Federal immigration agencies have drawn backlash due to increasing deportation of immigrants with no criminal records and violence towards American citizens.
The Expo originally appeared on Handshake, a career-building platform site used by around 1,300 universities in the U.S., which is how the event was advertised at universities nationwide, including Pitt.
Jared Stonesifer, a University spokesperson, said that although the event was automatically placed on Pitt’s own career page, the Expo was not affiliated with the University.
“The presence of these third-party opportunities does not indicate endorsement or partnership by the University,” Stonesifer said.
Marley Pinsky, president of the Student Government Board and junior politics and philosophy major, said she and her fellow board members were concerned when they saw the event on Pitt’s career page. They spoke with their adviser, Karin Asher, about the University’s potential role in the event and discovered that Pitt never hosted or organized the expo or webinar.
“We were highly concerned that Pitt would host an organization that has been profiling and targeting vulnerable people in our country,” Pinsky said. “[But] it was never hosted by Pitt. There was never a webinar that someone from Pitt was bringing someone from border patrol to speak.”
However, Pinsky said CBP’s recruitment webinars and advertising through Handshake rightfully caused alarm for students.
“There’s been a lot of cries across America to abolish or defund ICE,” Pinsky said. “[So] when students see a message like that pop up from their Career Center — even if we step back and understand it’s not Pitt — people have a right to be alarmed and worry, ‘Is Pitt doing this?’”
Stonesifer clarified that the University had a career fair from February 17-19 but did not host CBP or ICE in-person or online.
“The University’s career fair taking place this week does not include representatives from U.S. Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Stonesifer said.
Pinsky said that CBP’s increasing size is alarming, “in any capacity.”
“[CBP] thinks this is ‘business as usual,’ and they want to continue what they’re doing. It’s scary to think that they’re hoping to expand in any capacity,” Pinsky said.
Pinsky encourages students to keep speaking out, regardless of Pitt’s involvement.
“It’s valid for us to be concerned, and we should hold Pitt administrators and the University as a whole to a higher standard,” Pinsky said.