{"id":5064079,"date":"2025-09-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illatinonews.com\/?p=5064079"},"modified":"2025-09-29T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:00:00","slug":"equity-cannot-be-advertised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/illn\/2025\/09\/29\/equity-cannot-be-advertised\/","title":{"rendered":"Equity Cannot Be Advertised"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the Trump administration tears through higher education and strips away protections for students of color, Northwestern <\/a>University <\/a>continues to boast its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion\u2014until undocumented students ask for help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As co-president of the Advancement for the Undocumented Community, I wrote the Emergency Resolution for Undocumented Students in January after the concentrated persecution of the undocumented community and racial profiling of brown people. The resolution began after around two years of watching my peers, who were impacted by the undocumented progress, cry from the very services Northwestern advertises. According to a rising senior in Biology, Yoel Sanchez, financial aid offices punish undocumented families for lacking Social Security numbers. According to a student who preferred to be anonymous due to their immigration status, legal aid is delayed until it\u2019s useless, and career counselors misinform students that they have \u201cno options\u201d. In practice, Northwestern treats undocumented students as accessories to its brand: displayed when convenient, silenced when uncomfortable, and abandoned when justice is at stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not when your accessory speaks that it becomes less marketable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An anonymous student shared their experience trying to clarify job eligibility with Student Enrichment Services (SES), highlighting the barriers undocumented students face. \u201cI emailed MJ Nataren, an SES Assistant Director, asking if a domestic student without work authorization could apply for the SAW Counselor role and, if selected, be paid through a stipend instead of hourly wages,\u201d the student recalled. \u201cIt took ten days to receive a response, and Nataren told me that Northwestern\u2019s guidelines don\u2019t allow hiring without the proper work authorization. They added, \u2018I wish there was more I could do in this case, but do know that I am here if you need any other form of support.\u2019\u201dIn the resolution, I reported on Northwestern\u2019s failed systematic approach, which involved numerous steps to acquire legal aid, ultimately resulting in denied services, career advising, financial support, and faculty training. It urges the university to partner with local immigrant justice organizations, such as the HANA Center, to provide immediate, specialized resources that Northwestern is not equipped to offer. Since John Evans<\/a>, founder of Northwestern and a slave owner, did not have in mind a community outside its own, the white and wealthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After six years of deliberation by faculty, including associate professors and Weinger advisors, Northwestern finally published a website<\/u><\/a> in support of undocumented students. The website claims that Student Enrichment Services (SES) provides appointments with consulting attorney Kalman D. Resnick, Esq., to currently enrolled, full-time undergraduate students who are eligible to receive a legal consultation. Student Enrichment Services funds this service. However, for a student in need of legal consultation, they must first schedule an appointment with the Associate Director to be approved by SES. According to an anonymous student and Sanchez, who have used this service, the number of approvals to seek legal assistance is overwhelming, and by the time they need consultation, it is too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anonymous student said, \u201c I feel like SES doesn\u2019t really care, not trying hard enough. Because I have been paid by SIGP and SURG grants before, so I don’t see how it is impossible for SES to do this? SES should not claim to support undocumented students because they don’t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northwestern\u2019s promises of support often collapse under bureaucracy and neglect. SES advertises free legal consultations; however, the approval process is so burdensome that urgent cases usually escalate before students can access the help they need. According to the Global Learning Office,<\/u><\/a> Career Advancement claims to support all students regardless of immigration status. Still, when the anonymous student asked about job options after graduation, they were told they \u201chad no option\u201d and could not work. That misinformation left the student hopeless and exposed to their lack of training. Moreover, when AUC attempted to host an event to share real opportunities, Career Advancement failed to attend or provide resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the anonymous student, career counselors claimed to support undocumented students but were not trained to do so. When asked about employment after graduation, the counselor admitted they did not know what options were available for students without work authorization and instead pointed only to research opportunities on campus during undergrad\u2014failing to mention alternatives such as independent contracting with an ITIN or EIN.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These failures are not isolated. They reflect a systemic neglect that leaves undocumented students unsupported at every critical touch point\u2014legal services, career advising, and financial aid. Combined with heightened fear from recent federal crackdowns on immigration policy, Northwestern\u2019s inaction creates an environment of anxiety and inequity that undermines students\u2019 ability to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The personal is political because I\u2019ve always breathed it. Even after having documents, every restless night, my anxiety, tied to my PTSD for being formerly undocumented, continues to consume my everyday life. My veins are the river of the nights colonizers decided to own to claim a home that was already a home to others, and to steal the autonomy of bodies through rape and slavery. It tears my heart that I keep being a target for having skin of the brutalities of colonialism, claiming my erased ancestry as also Indigenous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I will never know what it means not to be seen as a person before my appearance as a brown woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equity cannot be advertised; it must be practiced. If the university truly wants to embody the values it parades, it must move beyond slogans and invest unapologetically in every student\u2019s right to learn, thrive, and belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Cover Photo: Taken in 2019 at the Multicultural Center, students marched in support of the DACA program, showing solidarity with the undocumented community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have an idea for an Opinion-Editorial piece, please send your ideas to\u00a0Info@LatinoNewsNetwork.com<\/a>\u00a0for consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Equity cannot be advertised; it must be practiced. 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