WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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The student organization, UndocuHoosiers Bloomington, is petitioning Indiana University to create a new full-time position to serve undocumented students and staff. The organization wants the position to be in the Office of International Students Services. The co-founder of UndocuHoosiers Bloomington, Willy Palomo, says it is the responsibility of the university to help their undocumented students.
“Undocumented students have very particular needs, and not all staff members know how to work with undocumented students. There are certain people within each of the offices-Office of Admissions, Office of
International Students, Office of Scholarships-who know how to help undocumented students, but it takes awhile for many of these students to find these people. It’s a process of being told ‘no,’ it’s a process of having a lot of frustrating engagements with some staff members who for whatever reason don’t have the best information at hand. The reason we want a staff position is because it kind of streamlines it.”
This staff position would be tailored to serve the needs of current, and future undocumented students and staff at IU. UndocuHoosiers Bloomington are asking for the position to be created by July.
“IU makes a promise to all of its students who attend to support them and to offer them everything that the college has to offer, and that promise isn’t being kept with undocumented students.”
The UndocuHoosiers will deliver the petition to President McRobbie and the Office of International Student Services after their rally on April 7th at the sample gates as part of their UndocuHoosiers Week.
