Students at Southwestern College will be facing a reality few foresaw when, on January 20, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.
Members of the SWC community have reacted with concern about the next fours years under a Trump presidency.
During his campaign Trump repeatedly promised to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, ban Muslims from entering the country and repeal the Affordable Care Act. He claimed climate change is a Chinese hoax and proposed tax reform where the top 0.1 percent would receive more tax relief than the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers combined.
Interim Superintendent Robert Deegan issued a campus-wide statement about the election.
“The results of the presidential election have created uncertainty and concern among our student population and members of our college community. To that end, we want to express our unequivocal and resolute support for each and every one of our students.”
Following the election, college leadership, staff and the ASO scheduled events to promote dialogue.
“Lets Talk About It: Election Expression,” moderated by ASO President Mona Dibas, was a forum where students, faculty and administrators were able to speak freely about the election results.
Issues raised by students included possible deportation and diminished LGBTQ rights.
Consensus among participants was that everyone who wants change must be involved in their communities.
“We must work together, be an activist and an active member in your community,” Dibas said. “If we do that, watch it have a ripple effect across the nation.”
Dibas and other members of the ASO created a pin that represents growth and unity called “UNITED.” Dibas said she hopes this will become a “symbol for students at SWC that encourages unity rather than division among students.”
On Nov. 17, about 300 students, faculty and community members marched on campus against racism, misogyny and homophobia expressed by Trump and his supporters during the campaign. SWC student Abigail Flores and Dibas organized the peaceful protest with the aim of promoting peace, respect and freedom. About 12 Trump supporters, including Juan Carlos Hernández, 22, a communications major, were in attendance to “protest the protest.”
Holding a sign reading “01.20.17 He Will Be,” Hernández said students should not protest because it will not change anything.
“I believe that Abigail Flores and her band of misfits have decided to get together and try to put on a façade that looks like change but really isn’t,” he said. “The matter of fact is that they can’t change anything, because the electoral college has put up their prospective votes that will make Donald Trump win the presidency and they’re trying to say ‘#notmypresident.’”
During his campaign, Trump said that he would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created in 2012 through an executive order by President Obama, allowing qualified people who came to United States as children to remain in the country, free from threat of deportation. Most DACA recipients are military, students or college graduates with jobs and no criminal record.
Some college students under the DACA program have raised concerns of possible deportation under the new Trump administration.
A National Immigration Law Center statement said, if Trump follows through on his promise, students are urged not to apply or renew.
“Anyone deciding whether or not to apply for DACA has had to weigh the benefits and risks of applying,” the statement read. “When you provide information about yourself to immigration authorities by submitting the DACA application, you are taking a risk.”
A campus forum hosted by immigration attorneys reiterated an uncertainty if the program will remain under the Trump administration.
Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has been a vocal opponent to Trump’s immigration stances. He called for a “moral wall” in a letter to all 58 superintendents of education in California.
“My wife and I have struggled with how to explain the hateful rhetoric spewed during the campaign to our four young children,” Newsom wrote. “Like so many parents across the nation, we reinforced the values of empathy, compassion and kindness. Now, more than ever, it is incumbent upon us to translate those values into concrete action to protect California’s children. We must establish a zero-tolerance policy for hate in our schools.”
Newsom urged the state’s university and community college systems to review protocols that would shield the personal data of undocumented students from potential abuse by the federal government.
Since the election of Trump there has been a spike in racially-tinged campus incidents throughout the nation, according to reports in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Organizations that track hate crimes have seen a rise in reports since the presidential election,” read an article by Nadia Dreid and Shannon Najmabadi.
“There have been at least 30 instances of reported hate speech or violence against minorities on U.S. campuses or involving college students since Nov. 8, many of which involved references to President-Elect Donald J. Trump.”
SWC can be added to that list.
Copies of The Sun and El Sol Magazine have been defaced with racist messages and calls to vote for Trump. More than $3,000 dollars worth of copies of El Sol Magazine featuring Dibas wearing a Muslim hijab on the cover were destroyed or stolen. Chula Vista Police and SWCPD investigated the incidents, but no charges were filed.
College trustees expressed strong support for migrant students. Resolution 1984 passed by the governing board, states “the board stands united in support of an immigrant-friendly environment for all immigrants who choose to better their lives through education. Southwestern College is and will continue to be a safe environment for all students, staff, faculty and administrators.”
SWC’s staff of developmental office hosted “Faculty Think Tank—Empowering Student Voices” to “engage faculty in coming up with creative solutions to cultivate student voices. Similar meetings are planned for the spring semester.
When the Spring 2017 semester begins on Jan 30, Trump will have been president for 10 days. He pledged to begin the deportation of about 11 million undocumented immigrants during the first hour of his administration. Trump has said, without evidence, that 3 million of the migrants are “criminals.”
DACA recipient Luis Hernandez-Bautista, 25, recently hugged his father for the first time in five years when the human rights organization Border Angels negotiated with the U.S. Border Patrol to briefly open the border gates at Friendship Park. He said he did not expect Trump to win the election.
“I’m terrified,” he said. “(DACA) is one of the things he said he would take away. All I can do is just hope, but I’m terrified.”