Campus Climate & Possible Impacts to Research Study

If you didn’t hear about it before, back in mid November 2013, there was a student group, the Young Conservatives of Texas, at the University of Texas-Austin that was going to do a mock immigration sting on campus to prompt a discussion about immigration reform.  At this same time, our research team was wondering how to reach out to undocumented aspiring college students and college students.  Even though this incident occurred in Texas, far from Maryland, such incidents make undocumented youth weary of getting involved with anything having to do with identifying themselves as “undocumented.” Talk about creating a campus or national climate of fear by simulating “catching an immigrant” and getting rewarded for it, like the event at UT was considering?!

To respond to this event, the UT campus community composed of students, staff and community leaders, put together an on-line petition to revoke the student group on campus and had a protest regarding the event.  Documented and undocumented students were empowered to take a stance against this event.  We are really living in a time when more and more students are “UNDOCUMENTED and UNAFRAID.”  Eventually, the YCT student group was pressured to cancel their event due to the public outcry, the UT-Austin's administration’s disapproval, and the rally. 

Courtesy of Nia Wesley
Source: http://egbertowillies.com/2013/11/19/young-conservatives-of-texas/ 

Although students in UT-Austin may be unafraid on their campus, this does not mean that Maryland students are the same. As a research team, we still have to be aware of the possible tenuous campus climate that can ensue if events like this would occur here.  To ensure the safety and confidentiality of our study participants, we will not collect full names of those students who are interested in being interviewed, and the survey itself does not ask for any identifying information. 

We hope that our study will provide some context of the campus experience of undocumented Latina/o students in the state of Maryland.