In the past year, the Trump administration has made the United States increasingly unsafe for many minority groups. Anti-Trans executive orders have affirmed the ways that many people discriminate against trans people. ICE has made it harder for immigrants and even American-born citizens to live their lives. Deals with universities have stripped them of their academic freedom and forced them to fall in line with the President’s views on education. In response to this fascistic administration, instead of communicating their support for the many diverse students on Cornell campus, Cornell’s administration has given $60M to Trump, agreed to train staff on Trump’s harmful rhetoric, and allowed ICE recruiters to stay on their hiring systems. They have not created a single school-wide email communicating their support for minority students groups and have refused to broadly advertise the many resources available for groups such as queer and trans students.

Making Cornell a sanctuary campus would send the message that these minority students are safe on our campus and would encourage the development of further safety measures to protect them. For international students, this means taking steps to protect them against deportation. For queer and other minority students, this means a commitment to maintaining the many resources the school has available even in the wake of conservative political attacks. For all students, these protections would allow our academic freedom to be maintained to the utmost degree.

Cornell’s motto of “any person, any study” implies that all students should be protected from the chaos of the Trump Administration when they are on this campus. Cornell admits students from all around the world, students who would benefit from knowing their education won’t be impacted by ICE Raids or other discrimination. Making Cornell a sanctuary campus is an essential first step in ensuring that Cornell can stick to its motto and persist through unprecedented struggles.