Undocumented: From Different Perspectives
Act on a Dream Members:
The Battle between being an Advocate and member of vulnerable community.Since the Presidential Election, Act on a Dream has served as the primary student organization for Harvard College administration when it comes to addressing what the undocu+ community needs from the institution. This collaboration; however, has left student members emotionally "burned out." This has lead to AOD members seeking larger and more consistent access to mental health services and better understanding of the issues that undocumented students may be facing in and out of the academic scene for the greater Harvard faculty and staff.
One student expressed her efforts to seek help at CAMHS, a service advertised by the Working Report and many emails. But waiting times for appointments were long and the increasing amount of work AOD was tasked with was wearing down on the time and focus available for academic work. Academic work was not relevant when fear of deportation and her family's safety took the forefront.
Another AOD member expressed the emotional tax that this political climate had on his emotional health. He sought out CAMHS, Carolina Gonzalez to be specific, and began meeting on a weekly basis. However, eventually decided to become inactive with AOD to try to find more time to do academic work.
Another student reached to CAMHS early on and said that the CAMHS clinician was overall pretty helpful, but was pushed to seek another CAMHS counselor when the initial one informed them that a social worker case would be opened for her undocumented family. Investigation of any kind triggered panic attacks that further exacerbated her inability to focus and study.
Lastly, another member interviewed spoke about lack of understanding from multiple professors when she tried to seek extensions or potential plans of actions on how to deal with the academic load during a time of emotional stress. This lack of understanding resulted in their academic standing becoming one of probation and them considering a leave of absence.
Undocumented/DACAmented Members at Harvard:
Inclusion and Exclusion within Act on a Dream and the greater undocu+ community.Two of the main issues that came up in the interviewees who were not involved in Act on a Dream was accessibility to information from both Act on a Dream and Harvard. The other issue was the transparency. The continuation of marginalization within the greater community remained which caused resentment by part of the students.
One student, active in immigration reform in and outside of Harvard, but not through AOD stated that the student group didn't seem particularly welcoming to undocumented students that weren't Latinx. This had to do with the majority of the board members being of Latinx descent and many of their co-sponorships being Latinx student organizations. This lead for students to not engage with AOD and therefore, not be exposed to the information that was distributed by AOD as liaisons of the larger Harvard Community.
Another complaint revolved the website. Multiple students, including a Graduate student at the School of Education expressed his disappointment on a website that provided many links that were updated or very vague, leaving uncounted students further confused on the specific Harvard support in the undergraduate and graduate level.
Other students voiced their confusion on what resources were available. Many of the resources were designated by word of mouth, which they reasoned had to do with the overall decentralization of the college, but the concensus became that given their already marginalized state, forgoing some of these centralistic tendencies would allow for these students to navigate Harvard in a more confident and successful way.
Following the lack of transparency and accessibility, one student voiced that summer and job opportunities were very difficult to understand. They reached out to many offices, something that caused further stress in a time period where they couldn't even focus on work and when they found opportunities, they missed crucial deadlines that they hadn't been made aware of.
These issues addressed by the students above seem to have been acknowledged in the working report as seen by the statements below. However, the fact that they are still being voiced, means not enough has been done to fill the gaps in support.
Despite difference on the focus between both subsets of the undocu+ community at Harvard on how they hope to better be supported by Harvard as an institution, they should be addressed collectively in order for a successful partnership with administration and students to grow. There should more conscious effort between Act on a Dream and the larger Harvard Administration to better fill the gaps in the current plan instituted to advice and support the undocu+ community.Website
In the spring, a website was built to showcase support, services and programs for undocumented students at the College (seehttps://diversity.college.harvard.edu/undocumented-students). Feedback from students indicated that the website was sparse and more resources should be detailed. It is also necessary for the University to provide more information about services for the undocumented graduate student population on its University website.Counseling and Mental Health Services
Counseling and Mental Health Services (CAMHS) offered individual appointments and a weekly narrative support group during the spring term. Students had strong praise for one counselor, who herself is an immigrant to the U.S., but felt other counselors were not as well-versed in undocumented, mixed- status, and DACA student issues, which added to their stress and mental health concerns. Students felt the length of time to get an appointment with the most knowledgeable counselor was too long given the number of students experiencing panic attacks, anxiety, and depression.Summer Opportunities
The Dean of the College announced that Harvard would help all undocumented students and students from the Executive Order countries find summer experiences and housing if they could not travel or go home for the summer. The Dean of the Harvard Summer School, the Dean of the Office of Student Life, the Dean of Undergraduate Education, and the Director of the Office of Career Services worked together to help students find meaningful summer experiences with room and board. Students were thankful for this support but the process was slow and cumbersome. One issue that surfaced was that many undocumented students were enrolled in courses with a high level of difficulty, leading falling grades and falling out of good standing or requested to take a leave of absence. This change of standing meant that many summer funding sources, programs, and research opportunities were no longer available to these students who arguably could benefit the most from these enriching experiences.
Note: names were kept off for anonymity purposes, but access to transcripts can be provided if requested.