The GWC Organizing Committee stands in solidarity with UndoCU’s demands for justice for undocumented students on the Columbia campus.
We believe that this administration has consistently failed undocumented students, a fact that is especially glaring since UndoCU issued its demands to the university two years ago. Only two demands were met: CPS services for undocumented students and summer housing for DACA students. This is not enough. You can read UndoCU’s list of demands here.
We demand immediate justice for undocumented students. The present conditions under which undocumented students navigate Columbia are tied to issues of systemic racism on campus. This includes Barnard Security Officers using unnecessary force last week, when they pinned down a black Columbia College attempting to enter a school building to work on his thesis; Columbia declining to disclose any disciplinary measures taken in response to Julian von Abele’s white supremacist rhetoric attacking a group of mostly black students outside of Butler library last semester, as well as the university’s continual gentrification of Upper Manhattan.
We call on the university to address the ways in which it perpetuates systemic racism and xenophobia more broadly, and meet UndoCU’s demands to support students who are made most vulnerable by white supremacy on and off campus.