In November, Pitt\u2019s Student Government Board passed a resolution calling on the University to increase transparency around federal policy changes and strengthen protections for international students.<\/p>\n
The resolution<\/a> passed on Nov. 18 asks Pitt to protect student, staff and faculty privacy, resist unnecessary cooperation with federal authorities such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>, and provide clear communication about immigration-related policies<\/a> and campus protocols. SGB President Marley Pinsky said this measure was introduced in response to heightened concerns over international student safety<\/a>, particularly since the start of President Trump\u2019s second term.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[SGB] wants to advocate for some safeguards to make sure that the University commits to, for example, [not] giving out information [about] students if external agents were to try and ask,\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cThis is about providing support for the international student community.\u201d<\/p>\n Last spring, over 1,000 international student visas<\/a> in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System<\/a> were terminated. Six people in the Pitt community<\/a> were impacted. Pinsky pointed to this event as the start of elevated anxiety for Pitt\u2019s international students.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been so many worries about how the international student community has been targeted by the Trump administration<\/a>,\u201d Pinsky said, \u201c[especially] with the SEVIS records being scrubbed and terminated out of nowhere. [SGB] is resisting attempts to encroach on student privacy if that were to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n According to University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer, the University regularly collaborates with government officials and agencies to advocate for international students. Pitt\u2019s Office of Government Relations and Advocacy<\/a> and the Office of International Services <\/a>work together to support the international community, Stonesifer said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a multitiered approach that ensures our international students have immediate, practical support for individual cases and institutional backing on broader policy matters,\u201d Stonesifer said.<\/p>\n Stonesifer iterated that SGB is an independent, self-governing organization and the University does not direct SGB\u2019s actions or statements.<\/p>\n \u201cAny actions or decisions by SGB are independent of the University and should not be interpreted as an endorsement by the University,\u201d Stonesifer said.<\/p>\n The resolution was developed in collaboration with several student organizations, including Pitt\u2019s chapter<\/a> of Amnesty International<\/a>. The chapter initially approached SGB asking for endorsement for their broader \u201cFirewall for Freedom\u201d<\/a> resolution, which is focused on protecting international students\u2019 rights to free expression and privacy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe worked with them to take that message and tailor it more specifically to Pitt,\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cThis resolution is one of the products that came out of that collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n Students for Justice in Palestine<\/a> also influenced the resolution, Pinsky said, after months of advocacy urging SGB<\/a> to call on the administration to protect student information and limit cooperation<\/a> with ICE.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir advocacy really pushed us to get to work and echo what they\u2019ve been saying for months,\u201d Pinsky said.<\/p>\n Following the resolution\u2019s adoption in November, Pinsky presented it directly to University leadership, including Chancellor Joan Gabel, Provost Joe McCarthy and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Carla Panzella, during the December Senate Council meeting<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of SGB\u2019s primary requests in the resolution is the creation of a centralized, easily accessible webpage that would outline protocols related to immigration enforcement, explain the University\u2019s response to federal policy changes and provide guidance for students if ICE were to come to campus.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just want information,\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cA central hub where students can go without digging through multiple pages.\u201d<\/p>\n Pinsky said that the administration seemed open to their ideas and was willing to increase their transparency.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[The administration] said they will be engaging with shared governance to create a portal that would allow for updates, including how Pitt is responding to federal updates,\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cThey\u2019ve also been discussing creating summaries to highlight what was discussed in the Chancellor\u2019s town hall meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n Another demand was for Pitt\u2019s Emergency Notification Service<\/a> to be utilized in the event that ICE comes to campus. SGB brought this demand to Pitt police, who control the ENS system,\u00a0 in a meeting on Dec. 5.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far, [Pitt police] did not seem willing,\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cWe will keep following up. I feel like it\u2019s incredibly clear that for many reasons, ICE would pose a threat to public safety on campus and the community should be alerted if they are here.\u201d<\/p>\n Pinsky said this is even more important following the recent fatal shooting<\/a> of a civilian, Renee Nicole Good, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. A day after the Minneapolis shooting, Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O\u2019Connor said that the city of Pittsburgh will not cooperate with ICE<\/a>. On Jan. 11, hundreds of people marched in protest<\/a> in the Southside neighborhood to ICE\u2019s field office<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Pinsky feels positive about the administration\u2019s response so far, she is looking for more communication between the University and its students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI wish this had been done sooner,\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cA lot of times, information is shared with faculty and administrators and [it\u2019s] expected to trickle down to students, and it doesn\u2019t. The more students know what we\u2019re asking for, the more pressure there is for the University to follow through.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, Pinsky said the resolution reflects what student government can realistically advocate for, given the University\u2019s reliance on federal funding.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would love to say, \u2018Don\u2019t cooperate with ICE,\u2019 but we understand the position the University is in,\u201d Pinsky said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re asking for is transparency, education and clear communication so students can protect themselves and their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In November, Pitt\u2019s Student Government Board passed a resolution calling on the University to increase transparency around federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2443,741,1868,73,75,74,42776],"class_list":["post-85498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-international-students","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-student-government-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}