Analysis and Recommendations
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Blueprint
A vision and prescriptive recommendations on what should be done and how should this be achieved and by whom.Founded in 2008, Act on a Dream (AOD) as a student organization, has sought to serve as an advocate for immigrant youth, provide a channel for student views, and empower the increasingly diverse millennial generation to act on issue concerning the undocumented community in the United States and in a global scale. AOD has done so by holding events such as mental check-ins, campus rallies, mentorship programs, and most notably the CAIR (Collegiate Alliance for Immigration Reform) Conference on February 2018.
In light of the 2016 presidential election, undocumented students and their families at Harvard and across the nation have found themselves in a state of perpetual political uncertainty with the projected repeal of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on March 5th, 2018, the announcement of the end of TPS for certain participating countries, Travel bans, the increase of militarization of the nation’s borders, and more frequent ICE raids. For such a vulnerable community, collaboration with administration at Harvard has and will continue to be instrumental in the academic, social, and mental well-being of its students.
Such collaboration has resulted in the hiring of a full-time immigration lawyer, Jason Corral, a part-time fellow for Undocumented and DACA students, Katie Derzon, and a full-time social worker, Carolina Gonzalez. This was a result of Harvard administration’s reaction to the presidential election of 2016. Headed by Loc Truong, Former Director Office for Diversity and Inclusion and Camila Nardozzi, who works as the Office of International Education Chair, Harvard re-set up a Working Group on Undocumented and DACA Students at Harvard College that had originally been formed in 2009 to address the support needed by this community. Involved were five student members: Rosa Vazquez ’20, Ana Andrade ’19, Miguel Garcia ’18, Daishi Tanaka ’19, and Bruno Villegas ’19, students who all have been involved with Act on a Dream or its extension CAIR board during their time at Harvard.
This working group used universities within the University of California system and other colleges such as Brown University and Dartmouth College as points of comparisons to create an action plan for providing support for undocumented students at Harvard College. This action plan was formed in a 40-page Working Report, which included short, intermediate, and long- term considerations and recommendations such as:
- Collaborating with Counseling and Mental Health Services to provide a weekly support group
- Collaboration with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) at Harvard Law School to provide legal support to affected individuals
- Presentations and teach-ins from national and local speakers on issues related to immigration status
- Dedicated website for undocu+ students (https://undocumented.harvard.edu)
Yet, despite these improvements, undocu+ students, both those who have not been involved with Act on a Dream and those who have, have voiced discontent with the support and resources advertised by both Harvard as an institution and Act on a Dream as a student organization. Both inactive and active in AOD members have mentioned the gaps that remain between institutional promises and resulting actions forming a sense of frustration, anger, and mental health difficulties. Specific complaints that were addressed were:
MENTAL HEALTH:
►►Undocumented Students faced long wait times for CAMHS appointment, specifically for individual appointments (both initial and continuous appointments) with Carolina Gonzalez, a Social Worker in Counseling and Mental Health Services. [1]- Long wait times between CAMHS appointments results in anxiety, physical illness, academic stress/difficulties, and exacerbation of emotions.
- This in turn has resulted in some cases in refusal to go to CAMHS until things have gotten potentially worse because of inefficiencies.
►Solution 2: CAMHS should do research and get in contact with outside social workers in the Cambridge/Boston area which undocumented students can go to in a more frequent basis. These outside resources should be actively advertised to undocu+ students who reach out to CAMHS.
- This would decrease the burden on Carolina Gonzalez who also gets many of the Latinx and POC (undocumented) community as well.
- We do acknowledge undocu+ students may still prefer Carolina, but there would be more flexibility in appointment times and frequency for them, regardless.
- Enables students to receive more frequent and informed counseling that can help students deal with mental health that may interfere with academic and social daily life.
►►Undocumented Support group formed and ran by Carolina Gonzalez following the 2016 election and later DACA repeal in Sept. 2017 has low-student attendance. Students said meeting time was inconvenient times which decreased student participation.
►Solution: Student body should be surveyed to see why they didn’t participate in the support group.
- Surveys can be talking amongst each other with AOD taking lead to not make community uncomfortable. Technique would be snowball sampling given the relative small community size.
- This would decrease uncomfort for undocu+ students that would occur if administrators reached out.
- Surveying this way would also and would provide a better picture on how support groups (if efficient at all) would help cater to the larger undocu+ community.
- Could enlighten to whether time conflicts, or another variable impeded the attendance rate, while what type of therapy methods or supports the larger undocu+ community thinks they need.
- Students say it is very taxing (both time-commitment and emotional-wise) to run College-wide undocu+ mentorship programs, informative events, and political advocacy efforts, but continue to do it because of “If I don’t, who will” mentality.
- “Sharing their narrative” for the educational development of others not necessarily affected by issue has led to internalization of grief, making academic endeavors and emotional focus exceedingly tough.
- They find themselves having to serve as liaisons between the vulnerable affected community and administrators from a larger institution while still being part of the affected community. This makes it difficult to maneuver between identity of self, personal emotions, and outside advocacy.
- This leads to detriment of personal well-being and academic achievements and in some cases financial complications because time-commitment takes away from paying opportunities.
- This person should be an in-person database to resources and legal, academic, emotional support systems available specifically in the undocu+ context [3]. Their office and contact information should be well-distributed online and in- person to both potential and current undocu+ students.
- It would be best that this person work closely or within the Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion for their model of working closely with students such as Act on a Dream, has been transparent and efficient as noted by their collaborations in previous events. They also had the clearest and most detailed collection of undocu+ resources.
- Full-Time fellow should:
- Keep up-do date to all undocu+ policies, legislation and its potential effects on the undocu+ community at Harvard and their families.
- Manage the initiative of faculty/CAMHS/Tutors etc. trainings on undocu+ awareness issues to ensure other aspects of undocu+ community are informed of the undocu+ resources and support.
- Actively create panels and conversations on what current and past immigration relevant issues are, open to both administrators, faculty, and students to relieve students of feeling like their existence is just an explanation of their identity.
- Curate pamphlets or informational sheets that can be distributed in-person or put on a website that provides resources list of resources that is Race and LGTBQ+ conscious to promote that undocu+ community has different faces and is not just one dominant narrative.
- Take leading role in undocu+ mentorships program, which is currently run by AOD as well as follow up on financial incentives for mentors (give each mentor preloaded card for mentee-mentor coffee or meals- $20-40 per school year, potentially)
- Lead the planning of larger scale meetings mentor-mentee events and creating undocu+ newsletters on a bi-weekly or monthly basis following the example of administration (EDI) to relieve AOD students of time commitment.
- Be in direct and constant contact with undocu+ student community, whether AOD members OR paid undocu+ student-intern (s).
- Student-interns would be official liaisons, while sharing the labor commitment with full-time fellow. They should be financially compensated, minimizing the opportunity cost ensued when trying to advocate for social issues, while also alleviating AOD member emotional burnout.
- This would allow for a check and balance that would make sure that administration was well-informed of current undocu+ issues/concerns, especially if considering institutional/administrative turnover.
- Ultimate result:This would establish a working student-administrator partnership that would relieve emotional and financial burden from current Act on a Dream members, enabling the institution and AOD to reach a larger proportion of the community more effectively and accurately.
ACCESSIBILITY AND TRANSPARENCY:
►►The Website for undocumented students (https://undocumented.harvard.edu)doesn’t list all resources or specific ones that undocumented students may need in an easy-to-find way. Some links, such as the Admissions tab in the website, redirect to the generic homepage of Harvard schools, not to a specific subsection that would provide contacts information, policies, or School-specific FAQ[5]that would be useful for current undocu+ applicants or students.- This makes students feel like they are an issue to be handled behind-doors, increases sense of marginalization that is already evident in the undocu+ community, while increases the number of places they have to go to before finding the correct person for their issue.
- This perpetuates sense of living in the shadows/liminality.
- Each page that is linked should redirect to at least a subpage that contains undocu+ relevant contact information and resources.
- It should contain current information on Harvard’s policies and resources.
- Reason for claim above: Undocu+ community has historical aversion of institutions (because of status), which coupled with common identities such as first-gen or low-income,[6]can result in undocu+ students or applicant’s difficulty in reaching out personally and website might be only point of contact and this would provide invaluable information that would lead to successful entry and navigation of Harvard.
- Additionally, although, AOD as an organization has been historically worked closely with administration to distribute such resources and information, AOD currently has reputation of being too Latinx-centric in their leadership which may push potential AOD members from actively engaging with AOD.
- While, AOD works on changing those assumptions, a wider initiative for administration is crucial to impact inactive undocu+ members and incoming freshman students, which can be done through an in-depth revision of a website.
- AOD would continue to distribute administrator’s information and resources using established student connections, but it would prove greatly useful to fill AOD’s logistically gaps at an institutional level.
- Additionally, AOD would need to actively take into consideration of intersections within the undocu+ community such LGBTQ+, low-income, first-gen., Black, Asian, Muslim etc.
- This could be done by actively seeking for student organizations sponsorships that transcend Latinx organizations such as Fuerza Latina and Latinas Unidas. Examples of additional student org. sponsors would be AAA (Asian American Alliance, (BSA) Black Student Association, (HIS) Harvard Islamic Society, and (HASA) Harvard African Student Association, and SHADE, a BGLTQ+ Organization that aims to create a safe space for students of color .
- This effort of acknowledging the intersectionality within immigration issues would be facilitated by undocu+ Fellow led intersectional teach-ins with student orgs. as part of the mandatory OSL trainings and/or the creation of pamphlets about immigration that explicitly acknowledges intersections of identities
- Additionally, although, AOD as an organization has been historically worked closely with administration to distribute such resources and information, AOD currently has reputation of being too Latinx-centric in their leadership which may push potential AOD members from actively engaging with AOD.
[1]This issue is a university-wide issue and that is acknowledged; however, given the specific issue (immigration), appointment waits are usually even longer since Carolina Gonzalez is the social worker at CAMHS that receives and supports most undocu+ students as well students of color.
[2]It is reported that 60% of Act on a Dream Board has been to 1+ CAMHS appointment in the last semester.
[3]It is acknowledged that Katie Derzon is a part-time fellow; however, it is projected that these greater roles would be too large of a commitment for a part-time person, considering being a graduate student and fellow is taxing enough.
[4]At least one or two financially compensated student interns is recommended to facilitate fellow’s contact to the undocu+ student community.
[5]Frequently Asked Questions.
[6]Not meant as a generalization, but a note worth considering.
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