(September 5, 2017) Today, Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) President Mark Ojakian made the following statement regarding DACA:
“The news today of the Trump Administration’s cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is heartbreaking and will have a devastating impact on some of the state’s best students.
There are some 800,000 young men and women protected by DACA nationwide, many of them here in Connecticut. These DACA students were brought as children to the United States and for many of them, Connecticut is the only place they’ve called home. We are extremely proud of our students — they are doing everything we expect them to do as engaged young people pursuing their dreams of higher education. Many have double majors, a 3.5 GPA or better and all are working hard despite the day-to-day fear of knowing their families may be deported at any moment.
The fundamental responsibility of a public education institution is to foster learning, innovation, and strong communities to any student willing to put in the work to learn and achieve. We have and will continue to fight for DACA students in our CSCU community. That is why we advocated fervently to our legislators in favor of allowing our DREAMERS access to their own institutional aid, and one of our universities was selected to host DACA students from states where they could not attend higher education institutions.
We stand with Connecticut’s DACA students and those across this country and urge Congress to finally take action to protect these young Americans.”
Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.