UMN students say on survey taken days before a graduate student’s detention they don’t think the U will do everything in its power to protect them
Byline: By Hannah Ward, Amelia Roessler (Editor-In-Chief), Jack O’Connor (Editor-In-Chief) and Molly Stroh (Data/Survey Editor)
More students express doubt, not confidence, in the University of Minnesota’s ability to protect students’ safety and privacy if the campus is targeted for federal immigration actions, an AccessU: Born to Immigrants survey has found.
The responses were gathered last week from undergraduates in the days before an international graduate student enrolled in the Carlson School was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers Thursday night.
When asked about confidence in whether the University would do everything in its power to protect students, about 40% of students who responded said they were “probably not” confident in the university, and roughly 15% said they were “definitely not” confident. About one-quarter said they were “not sure.”
By contrast, 28% of students said “probably yes” or “definitely yes” that the university would do everything in its power to protect students.
The Trump administration has stepped up efforts to deport foreign students on or near campuses across the country. At least nine current or former students with visas or green cards have been targeted, and the White House has threatened to pull federal funding from some universities that have not met his demands for his immigration enforcement efforts.
University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham and other administration officials said in an email sent to students and staff Friday that the university had no prior knowledge of the detention of the Carlson graduate student and did not share any information with ICE officials.
“It is important to note that our campus departments of public safety, including UMPD, do not enforce federal immigration laws, and our officers do not inquire about an individual’s immigration status,” University leadership said in the statement. “Their focus remains on public safety, fostering trust and maintaining strong relationships across the University community.”
The university has not responded to a request for comment about the AccessU survey result.
Some survey respondents commented directly. One wrote that professors and faculty are “welcoming.” Another said: “I would hope that the University of Minnesota will protect its students and go against Trump’s executive orders… I not only have family that is going to be affected from his orders, but have friends and their families who I am extremely concerned about.”
The survey was sent from March 22 to March 27 to a random sampling of 5,000 undergraduate email addresses and received 224 responses. The survey asked questions about free expression, security, belonging and resources at the university as well as about recent White House actions on immigration.
Due to the small sample size, this survey is more reflective of a large questionnaire. Full results will be published by AccessU: Born to Immigrants early in April.
This article was written and reported by AccessU: Born to Immigrants staff members Amelia Roessler, Hannah Ward, Jack O’Connor and Molly Stroh