This university often likes to call itself a unique place, unlike other institutions of higher learning, and unlike many state institutions of any kind. In the pages of this newspaper that attribute is often called into question when graduation rates are published or other bad news is reported about NEIU.
NEIU is often accused by various campus groups of not truly serving Latinos, and some members of the Board of Trustees even forget what the word ‘Latino’ means from time to time.
Let’s put this university in its proper place on the scale of institutional responsiveness to one of its largest constituencies, Latino students, and specifically, undocumented students.
There are anywhere from 7,000 to 13,000 undocumented students attending universities in the United States. Recent estimates put the NEIU undocumented population at approximately five to ten percent of that total. We are a safe haven for undocumented students, and this is something we should all recognize and celebrate. Other universities should be so lucky as to understand and accept the undocumented population and all is has to offer in experiences, ideas, talent and hard work in furthering the missions of their universities.
Every person can make a contribution to the fabric of a school’s identity, and for NEIU, undocumented students represent the very soul, the very core, of this institution. And NEIU could always do more to nourish, protect and encourage its soul to thrive.
NEIU preaches access and excellence, and diversity is on the lips of every administrator who talks about the school to anyone outside of it. It is time for this university to truly put its money where its mouth is.
NEIU should be doing all that it can to aid undocumented students in fulfilling their educational dreams, by expanding existing programs for undocumented students, and by creating more scholarships and grants at the university level for talented, hard-working students who deserve a chance to succeed.
There are critics who would say that undocumented students, and undocumented immigrants in general are ruining this country and stealing jobs and services from Americans, amongst other things.
These people should be reminded of what is written on the Statue of Liberty: “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Just as white Americans came here 400 years ago looking for a better life, just as Native American came here tens of thousands of years before them looking for a better life, so Mexicans, Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans, Brazilians, Argentines and countless others come here in search of that dream of a better life. We do not have the right to close the doors to this so-called American dream at will. Because the skin color and language and customs of those who wish to come to America is different doesn’t not make it any more plausible or acceptable for a nation of immigrants to close ranks on the undocumented population.
The United States was built on the hard work of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses; those who chose to strike out from their native lands and live free. At NEIU, we get that, we do understand. Now can our university really live up to the label of a “Hispanic-serving institution” and begin to better serve its most vulnerable members? The dream does not end at our doors; we have to encourage it and support it, and not let is die within the walls of this institution.