Academic Senate voices concerns about Trump's executive orders
CMU administration says the orders' guidelines are not clear
Central Michigan University President Neil MacKinnon and Interim Provost Paula Lancaster addressed faculty concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders at the Academic Senate meeting on Feb. 4.
MacKinnon said his leadership team is focused on watching and assessing the executive orders, but there are no guidelines for future actions.
“Many of the orders are unclear in their application to, and direction for, colleges and universities, and the lack of clarity is compounded by legal pauses that have impacted or even changed some of the orders,” MacKinnon said in his report. “The truth is, right now there are far more questions than there are answers.”
Since Jan. 20, Trump has issued over 80 executive orders, ordering stops to federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, denying U.S. citizenship to immigrant-born children, deporting illegal immigrants and other orders.
Lancaster said from an academic side, nothing changes, and she advised faculty to continue pursuing academic business and to hold programming as usual.
“If something changes, we are ready and prepared to shift and do whatever we need to do, to the greatest extent possible (to) protect the great work that you all are doing,” Lancaster said.
Similarly, CMU General Counsel John Danner said it is not clear what CMU is supposed to be doing in regards of the executive orders, but his office is working on learning how they can affect the university.
“There's nothing really to base a legal opinion on what we should or shouldn't be doing at this point,” Danner said. “It's all federal guidance until we see the specific federal rules being pushed down.”
He also said his office is working on guidance for students and faculty on what to do in case of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
But students and faculty asked to have some guidance sooner.
Itzel Neri, a CMU junior and the president of Empowered Latino Union, said she wants CMU to communicate with students on what they are planning to do if ICE is at the university.
“We are just afraid of what's coming next,” Neri said. “We are looking for programs, information, everything, but again, we're also students. So, we want more communication on what (CMU) plans on doing if ICE does come here, what our rights are if we're getting discriminated (against) by ICE.”
At the end of the meeting, Martha Frank, a faculty member in the department of mathematics, read a statement for approval by the Academic Senate. The statement expressed Academic Senate's commitment to equity and inclusion in a learning environment.
"We are committed to recruiting a diverse student body and maintaining a safe and welcoming environment where students can thrive and progress toward graduation," Frank read. "We believe that hatred, fear and divisiveness have no place in a university.
"Further, we support a curriculum and academic policies that encourage students to explore their own backgrounds, forge their future goals, and interact successfully with people who bring talents and experiences different from their own."
In other events:
- Academic Senate deleted Cultural and Global Studies minor and major, as well as Early Childhood Development and Learning Minor, Standard Elementary Certificate. Stephen Juris, the chair of Academic Senate, said the deleted Cultural and Global Studies programs were on pause since October 2021 because only a few students were a part of them. He also said the Standard Elementary Certificate was cut because the Childhood Development and Learning Minor changed. Juris said no current students should be affected because "the education programs are always on top of how their programs will serve in training ... (and) they have changed their programs to fill that need."
- The Senate voted for several new programs, some of them are a Casino Gaming Operations minor, Applied Artificial Intelligence minor and Geology major with green energy concentration.
