Students at the University of Colorado are planning to hold a demonstration Thursday in response to President Donald Trump’s now-halted executive order restricting travel for people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
According to the organizers, the rally is intended to demonstrate solidarity with CU students and employees affected by the executive order, which had indefinitely barred Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. and suspended the admission of all refugees for 120 days. Trump’s action also blocked citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for at least the next 90 days.
A federal judge on Friday placed a temporary halt on the executive order, but the White House appealed that ruling. The matter is now before a three-judge federal appeals panel.
At the demonstration, which is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at the Dalton Trumbo Fountain Court outside the CU student center, students also plan to demand that the university hire a full-time immigration attorney and make CU a “sanctuary from enforcement from xenophobic federal policy,” according to a news release from the group organizing the demonstration.
“Recent executive action targeting seven Muslim-majority countries hurts CU community members,” according to a press release from CU graduate students Katharine Adamyk and Gregor Robinson. “This executive action has inflicted inhumane harm on innocent people and has instilled fear, negatively impacting learning, research and teaching.”
Adamyk and Robinson, both mathematics graduate students, say they are part of Who Runs CU, which describes itself as a group of concerned CU community members who believe the university must improve its accountability and transparency.
“We are tired of witnessing talk with no action, lack of progress and transparency and no real dialogue about how to commit our campus to the values higher education aspires toward,” the group says on its website. “Our goal is to get the university to live up to its words through a campaign aiming to change how CU is run.”
Thursday’s demonstration is also being coordinated along with a national effort called “Academics United – No to Visa and Immigration Ban.”
Last week, faculty members on the Boulder campus voted 30-1 to approve a resolution condemning the executive order. Faculty members said they felt Chancellor Phil DiStefano should have taken a stronger stand against Trump’s action.
The student group said it feels the same way, writing that the chancellor’s statement lacked “the tangible conviction” of statements made by other university leaders.
In a Jan. 29 statement, DiStefano said he was concerned about members of the CU community who might be affected by the executive order and advised that they not travel outside the U.S.
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