As ICE arrests persist in Greater LA, how are colleges helping students in crisis?

Earlier this month, dozens of federal immigration agents descended on MacArthur Park, a place where community members often gather to play soccer or catch a free concert. After images of rifle-carrying agents in armored vehicles circulated across social media, the L.A. Times reported, Cal State L.A.’s provost sent a letter to faculty, signaling that some students did not feel safe taking public transit or driving to campus.

That message is just one of the latest in a series of communications that college and university officials have made related to a higher education agenda enacted by the Trump administration since January.

And while Cal State L.A.’s provost was reinforcing existing policy — not announcing a new one — the message demonstrates how schools are maneuvering to help students feel safe.

Tapping into lessons from the pandemic 

The provost, Heather Lattimer, also reminded professors of policies that allow them to provide excused absences and makeup work for affected students. In some cases, she added, faculty members could give students the option of joining class remotely.

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Community colleges that LAist reached out to said they have not issued guidance like Cal State L.A. But “our academic deans have asked faculty to act with understanding and compassion when dealing with concerned students,” said Aya Aoki, a spokesperson for Cerritos College.

At Glendale Community College, campus leadership is likewise “committed to supporting students and employees who have been impacted, directly or indirectly, by recent immigration enforcement efforts,” said spokesperson Kristine Nam.

Ethereal Violet Reyes, a spokesperson at Santa Ana College, said "faculty are instructed to be flexible to students, especially those who may be facing difficult times due to fear about ICE raids or simply having life-alterations due to recent immigration enforcement."

In a statement, CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said that when students are experiencing "hardships that may impact their education, faculty have some level of flexibility within existing policies in how best to support them, which could include alternative accommodations on an individual basis.”

Some of those accommodations might be familiar.

During the COVID-19 health crisis, students experienced a range of challenges, said Terry McGlynn, a biology professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills who chairs its academic senate.

Before the vaccine became widely available, he added, students were largely stuck at home. Scores of parents lost their jobs; and to make ends meet, many students were compelled to take on additional financial responsibilities. Some students were tasked with becoming caregivers. Others fell ill. Amid the chaos, educators had to figure out how to make it all work.

"We learned a lot about the importance of flexibility,” McGlynn said.

Now that the Trump administration’s deportation efforts are underway, he added, leaving home can once again pose a huge risk. And much like in the pandemic, the children of undocumented Angelenos are stepping in for parents who are unable to work.

“All across higher ed, we've taken [what we learned from COVID], so that we can be more empathetic educators,” he said.

Encouraging empathy 

Mass deportations were a hallmark of Trump’s presidential campaign. After his inauguration, the academic senate at Cal State Dominguez Hills passed a resolution that calls on educators to accommodate students navigating a host of challenges. This includes “unexpected disruptions in work schedules, financial difficulties, shifts in housing and study environments, and [a] change in residential locations.”

Centering students’ basic needs was a no-brainer, McGlynn said.

“If you don't know where you're going to be sleeping or [when you’re going to be] eating,” he added, “how could you possibly focus on your education?”

The academic senate also encouraged educators to be attuned to other potential student hardships, including “stress, anxiety [and] depression.” With regard to students who lose their housing because of an ICE arrest, or who may be forced to leave the U.S. if they or their family members are removed from the country, the resolution suggests educators help students “complete their coursework through alternative means.”

“I don't think this is particularly novel,” McGlynn said. In the pandemic, students were not physically on campus for over a year, “and we were still able to deliver high-quality education,” he added.

Facing reality

On July 1, federal immigration agents turned a Cal State Dominguez Hills campus parking lot into a staging area.

Agents did not detain anyone on campus. Still, in a letter to students and faculty, president Thomas Parham said the agents’ presence was “disheartening and upsetting for many in our community.”

“The unfortunate reality,” he added, “is that the university cannot stop any vehicle from entering campus and parking in one of our lots, ICE or otherwise.”

The agents were gone by 10 a.m., McGlynn said. But in such moments, moving class online is an option at the discretion of every instructor.

“There's a variety of reasons why you could have a lesson be remote for one day or go asynchronous for a week,” he said. “If there's an elevated threat, I would feel comfortable doing that with my classes.”

“It's within my rights as an instructor to do so,” he added. “And I believe many faculty on campus would do the same.”