Madison, Wis. (July 8, 2020) – The announced update to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) from U.S.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week is deeply troubling and confusing at best; at its worst it is a policy that clearly embraces xenophobia and hatred.

Edgewood College has welcomed students from countries around the world for decades. These students are valued members of our community, and of the Greater Madison community. The announcement, coming at a time when our state and our country navigate a pandemic, makes the cost of returning to a fully-online delivery of classes (which we did for the safety of our community this Spring), inordinately high, as such a decision would result in the forced removal of students from our campus. That is simply intolerable.

In our community, we have named the viruses that we currently face: COVID-19, and racism. We are taking steps to mitigate the risk of the former on our campus by following the directives of our public health agencies and professionals. We will continue to do so this fall when we welcome students to campus for in-person classes. We are aware that the directives of those agencies can change as we all combat this pandemic. But we will not falter in our commitment to our students – all of our students – when faced with racism and hatred.

We at Edgewood College unequivocally reject the xenophobia and hatred reflected in this announcement, and we urge our representatives and all elected officials to do the same.

Respectfully,

Andrew P. Manion
President

Cc: Wisconsin Delegation

Senator Tammy Baldwin
709 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Senator Ron Johnson

328 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan

1421 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

About Edgewood College

Located in Madison, Wis., Edgewood College is a liberal arts Catholic college in the Dominican tradition. We serve approximately 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The College offers more than 40 academic and professional programs, including master’s degrees in business, education, and nursing, and doctoral degrees in educational leadership and nursing practice. For more information about Edgewood College, please visit www.edgewood.edu, or call Ed Taylor in Marketing & Strategic Communications at 608-663-2333.

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