Leaders at Cal State LA said this week that professors can move their classes online amid growing fears over immigration raids voiced by students at the campus east of downtown.
In a letter to faculty, the university provost said that after hearing from students “scared to take public transit and fearful of driving to campus,” leaders re-iterated policies that also allow professors to provide excused absences and alternative make up work arrangements for concerned students. Faculty have “the option of working remotely for a limited time due to extraordinary circumstances they are facing,” the letter said.
“Recent events in the LA area — including the presence of heavily armed immigration agents in MacArthur Park earlier this week — have left many in our community concerned for their safety,” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Heather Lattimer wrote Wednesday. “This week also marks the 6-month anniversary of the wildfires that disrupted the lives of many in our community. As a campus we recognize the significant harm that has resulted from these events and reaffirm our commitment to supporting our students, faculty, and staff and prioritizing your safety and well-being.”
There have been no reported raids on the 21,000-student campus, which has a large immigrant population and, like many California colleges, includes a “dreamers resource center” catering to an unspecified number of undocumented students. But as a commuter campus that draws significantly from nearby Eastside neighborhoods where protests and federal actions to detain undocumented residents have unfolded, concerns have grown over student safety.
“As a campus, we need to thoughtfully navigate these concerns as we seek to support all members of our Golden Eagle family,” Lattimer wrote. “While we do not want to go back to the online course schedule we experienced in 2021 and 2022, there may be circumstances where faculty choose to offer students facing extraordinary circumstances the option of joining an on-campus class remotely via a zoom link or turning in assignments remotely.”
For the moment, switching to remote instruction may be hard to notice at campus, which has fewer classes and students than usual due to the summer session. It’s not yet known how widespread the online classes will be when the fall semester begins on Aug. 18.
It’s also unclear if other California State Universtiy campuses in the Los Angeles region or elsewhere in the state will be offering similar accommodations. The Cal State L.A. and the CSU system have previously offered remote options during the pandemic and wildfires and given the option to students on military deployment.
Federal immigration actions have caused acute concern at colleges and public schools. In the Los Angeles Unified district, some teachers have reported increased absenteeism. During graduations last month, LAUSD leaders said they would deploy school police to set up “safe zones” around campuses to respond to potential encounters with federal agents.
CSU leaders have also created an FAQ about immigration enforcement on campus. The most recent version, published in February, says that “university police officers will not contact, detain, question or arrest an individual solely on the basis of suspected undocumented immigration status or to discover the immigration status of any individual, and university police will not undertake joint efforts with federal immigration enforcement authorities to investigate, detain or arrest individuals for violation of federal immigration law.”
The FAQ adds that, as a public university, CSU generally cannot keep federal immigration authorities off of public campus areas. “CSU does not have authority to prohibit federal immigration enforcement officers from coming on campus to those public areas even if their purpose is to enforce federal law,” the guide says.
Across California State University campuses, there are about 9,500 immigrants without documentation enrolled out of 461,000 total students. Out of the University of California system’s nearly 296,000 students, it estimates that between 2,000 and 4,000 are undocumented.
The state’s biggest undocumented student group among adults, estimated to be at least 70,000 and as high as 100,000, is enrolled at community colleges.
