My name is Alejandra Pérez and I am an undocumented, unafraid, and unapologetic fourth year student at the University of Washington Bothell. I came out as an undocumented immigrant during my senior of high school and ever since, I have been fighting for equitable access to higher education for undocumented students by creating systemic change. Our first victory was gettting the University of Washington system to participate in National Institutions Coming Out Day (NICOD).
The University of Washington system made four commitments: 1. Create a tri-campus taskforce of educators and students to advocate for issues of undocumented students 2. Hire full-time professional staff at each campus to work with undocumented students 3. allocate physical spaces for undocumented students and 4. create a pipeline to graduate school for undocumented students.
On April 7th, 2015 the University of Washington system released a public statement in support of undocumented students.
Today, I want to call on you to challenge your institutions to publicly support undocumented students through creating systemic change by participating in NICOD. Here are some steps I took, to be successful during NICOD:
- Have a group of undocumented students identify the needs on your campus. This will help you decide which commitments you want your campus to fulfill.
- Create a letter asking your school to come out during NICOD in support of undocumented students. In the letter, you can state the current challenges that undocumented students face at your school and provide testimonies from undocumented students, for school officials to see the impact that NICOD will have at your school.
- Who can make these changes at your school? Request a meeting with school administrators who have the power to implement the commitments you requested. Send the letter ahead of time so that they can review and be prepared to answer your questions.
- Make sure undocumented students are in the decision making spaces sharing their stories and helping make decisions. Once they have discussed, ask them to give you a timeline to determine when the commitments will be fulfilled and who will be your point of contact.
- Remember, all this work should be student lead. Have your school send a public statement in support of undocumented students, followed by the commitments that the university agreed to .
- Overall, have fun! Because, making systematic change is always fun!