6 February 6 - 12, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Saenz is an attorney and the president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Ed- ucational Fund. His organization is helping students understand their rights, and he wants universities to stand up for their students. Saenz discussed how public universities can stand up to agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid the heightened threat of immigration raids. “Even if there was a student that was tar- geted appropriately — which is unlikely — they can certainly plan their enforcement when that person is not on campus,” Saenz says. “The discussion with ICE needs to be, ‘The reason you should exercise your warrant off campus is to keep other students safe.’” This would require ICE to contact the university ahead of time, and even if it does so, Saenz and many other people interviewed for this story worry about overcompliance: universities going out of their way (when prompted or not) to accommodate the Trump administration or the whims of Gov. Greg Abbott. Multiple UTD students say overcompliance is already happening on their campus. For instance, the university closed its Office of Campus Resources and Support last spring, even after some students say they were told all SB17-related decisions had been made. As part of this move, the AccessAbility Resource Center, which offers disability and accessibility services, was moved to a different department. Students said that the level of support provided by the center has been significantly diminished by the move, in part because of a lack of staffing (20 people were fired when the university shuttered the Office of Campus Resources and Support). In November, free speech organization PEN America called out the University of North Texas for what the group termed “ex- treme overcompliance” after more than 75 changes were reportedly made to the school’s courses to align with the state’s DEI ban. Elsewhere, students at UTA lament the effect overcompliance has had on campus culture. Anderson, a junior, says campus “feels deader than usual.” Annual events like the fall drag show are no longer happening, and student organizations like the Lavender Alliance, which promotes equity for the LGBTQIA+ community, have been forced to collect student dues to keep running because they no longer receive university funding. “Now that there hasn’t been as many cultural events going on, it feels like the campus energy has been lost,” Anderson says. This echoes something Wright said: “I’m doing a lot of student care and research work from home, not from the office.” In other words, overcompliance has di- minished the kind of activities that bring stu- dents and their supporters together on campus, which could worsen the already dire mental health crisis facing college students. “Following SB17, not only have resources been dismantled, but the burden has been placed on students themselves to make up for that and support each other,” says Nora, a UTD student who asked to use a pseud- onym. “We’re doing what we can, but we’re not professionals.” Nora, who took part in the encampment on her campus, is also concerned about how the Trump administration will react to future student protests. The president has previously advocated for violent crackdowns on protests, and in May 2024, when he was still a candidate, he addressed campus unrest in a meeting with a small group of donors. “If you get me elected,” he said, “we’re going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years.” “The best protection is ourselves” O n a typically scorching Dallas day in August 2020, Karrington Bennett at- tended a protest on the campus of her new school. The aspiring lawyer had just transferred to SMU from Dallas College, and she joined the university’s Black Student Athletes as they wrote slogans on posters and marched for George Floyd and other lives taken by police brutality. On her poster, Bennett wrote the Bible verse Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.” The protest was peaceful, and she was particularly encouraged by the appearance of SMU’s then-president, R. Gerald Turner, who spoke to the crowd and gave his support for its message. “It was very magical to have that kind of support,” she says. Now, as she applies for law schools and once again considers SMU, Bennett is unsure if she’ll have that same kind of support. When Turner leaves his post, his successor will be Jay Hartzell, who held the president’s job at University of Texas at Austin during last year’s pro- Palestine protests. His university called the police on its students, and officers armed with riot gear arrested 57 protesters (charges against them were later dropped). “Given the fact that the new president opposed protests on his campus, I don’t think that’s the same kind of initiative he’s supportive of,” says Bennett. Less than five years after that protest at SMU — and after many universities espoused their commitment to fighting racism — Bennett is troubled by what she sees as an about-face in higher education. It’s left her thinking she’ll enroll in law school out of state, perhaps at a historically Black college or university. “I know the universities’ hands are tied, in some ways,” she says. “But I want to be in an environment where my identity as a Black student is celebrated and embraced. For me, I’d rather risk the financial complications to prioritize my comfort and security.” Bennett recognizes that moving away from home is an expensive choice many people would be unable to make, yet her hesitancy over where to enroll poses an im- portant question about DEI backlash and its long-term effects. The University of Texas system is vast and resourceful, and some of its institutions are brand names. What’s more, the system reported a slight increase in overall enroll- ment in fall 2023 and is attempting to entice more high schoolers by offering free tuition to any admitted student whose family makes less than $100,000 per year. But even if first- year enrollment is solid, retention, gradua- tion and the overall student experience are different stories. According to its own data, multiple UT system institutions have seen average or be- low-average retention rates and six-year graduation rates in recent years. Many fac- tors inform data points like this, but the im- portance of sufficient support systems can’t be overstated. Students who feel as if they don’t belong on campus are less likely to remain enrolled or graduate (perhaps explaining why uni- versities are keen to tout the idea of “belong- ing” in the absence of substantive DEI programming). Belonging is especially im- portant for first-generation students, who are more likely to remain enrolled, earn solid GPAs and have better mental and physical health if they feel like they belong on their campus. Monse Navarrete was the first person in her family to graduate from college when she earned her degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 2022. She is a ben- eficiary of the Deferred Action for Child- hood Arrivals program, an immigration program commonly known by the acronym DACA that permits some undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to remain. Even before SB17 took effect, Navarrete says there were many times she felt adrift, unsure of the resources available to her. Now that many of the cultural centers and inclusion programs designed for students like her have either been eliminated or dra- matically reshaped to fit state law, she often thinks about DACA recipients who are en- rolled in college right now. Because of com- pliance (or overcompliance) with SB17, those students have even fewer resources than she did. “We usually don’t ask for help because we’re afraid to ‘out’ ourselves,” she says of DACA recipients. And like many students, she says, “at the end of the day, we know the best protection is ourselves.” Anderson, the UTA student who came out as transgender in 2024, said something simi- lar. Students on her campus are banding to- gether in support of one another, whether that means pitching in dues for student orga- nizations once supported by the institution or working together on a measure to keep the library open around the clock. Anderson says she’ll take any small wins she can get. “It’s easy to think, ‘Oh, we only have 30 or so students here at this protest, and it’s a big school,’” she says. “But think about what it means for those 30 students.” “A denial of reality” I n late January, Ben Wright, the UTD pro- fessor, woke up and received some dis- heartening news. It wasn’t the court summons he’s been dreading; it was an announcement by the Trump administration that payments for federal grants and loans were being paused. The pause, he says, “has potentially massive implications for higher ed. It’s still too early to tell exactly how serious this will be, but it’s safe to say that American research universities are dependent on federal grant dollars to support their essential work.” The pause was eventually rescinded after roughly 24 hours of anxiety and confusion, but the message was clear: Trump wants to expand executive powers, and few American institutions are safe, especially those deemed too progressive. In fact, on the same day his administration rescinded the pause, Trump made good on a campaign threat against student protesters he errone- ously cast as “Hamas sympathizers.” “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on no- tice: Come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said as part of an executive order. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been in- fested with radicalism like never before.” To Wright, these steps further complicate the future of public universities in Texas. “Trying to read the mind of legislators is never something I’m interested in,” he says, “but it’s wise to not underestimate the num- ber and power of folks who actually do want to destroy public education at every level. There are folks that believe public education is a social scourge that must be Mike B rooks Students from across North Texas are recognizing the threat that Trump and state DEI bans pose. Unfair Park from p4 >>p8
