A Joint Statement from the CSU EOP Directors Respectfully submitted to Chancellor White and the 23 CSU Presidents January 14, 2017

The CSU EOP Directors' Association represents the EOP programs present on every one of the 23 CSU campuses. Since EOP's official inception in 1969, our programs have served as a primary vehicle for the CSU in increasing the access, academic excellence, and retention of California's historically underserved students (low-income, first-generation college students).

True to the mission and core values of EOP, and in these uncertain times, we affirm that EOP will, among other things:

• Stand with our students of all backgrounds to ensure their access to our institutions, as well as to the resources, programs, and services which support their successful degree completion.
• Defend our most vulnerable students from all manner of attacks including racist, sexist, nationalist, homophobic, transphobic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Semitic attacks.
• Support the rights of our students to engage in debate, public protest, and civil activism.
• Reaffirm our commitment to social justice and ensure that these values are upheld on each of our 23 campuses.

Further, in order to protect the most vulnerable members of our campus communities, the CSU EOP Directors’ Association will stand with the university administration on the 23 CSU campuses, Chancellor White and the Board of Trustees to defend our undocumented students, undocumented CSU employees, and their families by standing in opposition to all efforts of intimidation, unfair investigation, or deportation without due process.

We also stand in support of the measures affirmed in the Chancellor’s “Open Letter to Faculty, Staff and Students of the California State University” dated November 17, 2016. In anticipation that the incoming administration will continue to use the “bully pulpit” and will continue to threaten cuts in federal funding as a coercive tactic, the EOP Directors’ Association stands with Chancellor White as a moral imperative, and we:

• Urge the CSU to take all legal steps possible to protect student privacy by refusing to release information regarding the immigration status of our students and community members.
• Urge the CSU to take all legal steps possible in refusing to cooperate in deportation efforts with ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement); to refuse ICE the physical access to all land owned or controlled by the CSU for purposes of conducting immigration raids or surveillance; and to protect student information that could be used to intimidate, investigate, deport, or otherwise violate the civil and human rights of students. 
• Urge the CSU to take all legal steps possible to affirm and ensure the inherent rights to well-being and to address the individual and collective safety of all members of our campus community regardless of immigration status.
• Urge the CSU to provide resources that will allow for the establishment of a Dream Center and/or full-time Dreamers Support Coordinator position on each campus in order to ensure that undocumented students and allies have access to the information, resources, and guidance to support student safety and success.
• Urge the CSU to support and increase avenues of access to legal counseling for undocumented students and students with undocumented family members.
• Urge the CSU to take all legal steps possible to protect the right to work of “DACA- mented” students on our 23 campuses.
• Urge the CSU to create special funding sources to provide undocumented students with stipends, which they can receive in exchange for performing research under the guidance of faculty members or other meaningful educational projects.

The CSU EOP Directors’ Association is committed to work in coalition with our campus and community partners and each other to protect these values and honor these commitments. Our organization will stand in solidarity with Native people and people of color, immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community, women, and members of religious communities who may be targeted for intimidation and violence. We urge all members of the CSU community to partner with us in our efforts.

In the spirit of equity for all,