By Kayla Rogers
On the first day of the Spring semester, staff members from across campus came together to hold a panel discussion for students on the recent executive orders and how they will impact campus. Nathan Whitlock, the Interim Director of the Office of Civic and Community Engagement, hosted the event as part of the Citizen Power Tools series that aims to increase engagement on campus outside of voting. There will be a comprehensive email sent out to students soon on the details of this series so keep an eye out!
“The best way we can describe this is chaos,” Jamey Leahey, Vice President of Legal Affairs said as we began the discussion. This was a feeling shared by all who attended the event and it was clear that the instability caused by the immediate slew of executive orders has permeated the entire campus from students to staff to faculty regardless of political affiliation.
Leahey wanted to make one thing very clear: Centre is a private campus but that does not mean that these executive orders will not impact us. The institution and students rely on federal scholarships and funding which are highly regulated–meeting guidelines will determine whether or not Centre or its students will be granted funding.
Last Tuesday (January 28), Centre received a memo from the Office of Budget and Management essentially declaring a pause for all federal financial assistance (see below for the memo). The OBM hastily carried this out intending to “reassess” whether or not institutions and programs would receive funding under the current governing ideology. The administration cited the “use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies” as the rationale for pausing federal assistance. This implies that standards would be changed–which they often are, but not to this extreme or without notice–to comply with the administration’s goals.
On Wednesday, Kevin Lamb, the Director of Financial Aid, sent an email to the student body to inform them that this pause was rescinded and federal funding was received. For now, the crisis has been subdued, but if you have any questions or concerns about this, email finaid@centre.edu. In describing this incident, Leahey assured the students in attendance that this level of transparency would be continued and upheld throughout this chaotic period.
From the Washington Post
A major concern across campus is what this current administration will do to our Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Thus far, we will not be losing funding for our DEI office, but it is likely that federal funding will be tied to ending/changing the DEI practices. It is unclear how or when this will change but the ODI affirmed that “we will comply with the law, but we will not back down from our core values.” Dr. Anthony Jones, the Vice President of ODI, shared his concerns for the current administration, “I am afraid, too. But we will fight for you and we are doing our best. ODI is ready to stay in existence.” He also shared that they are prepared to go in different directions and rework their office to meet student needs and uphold our standards of diversity and inclusion.
Title IX standards have reverted to Trump’s 2016 guidelines across the nation. However, due to challenges in Kentucky’s court system, the Biden-era regulations were never in practice at Centre. This means that our Title IX office and practices will not experience changes at this time.
Jessica Leonard, Associate Director of Centre Global, spoke about the very concerning–and inexcusably dehumanizing (my words, not hers)–immigration policies and how they will impact students on campus. First and foremost, Centre has every intention of fully protecting all students and ensuring everyone is given opportunities to thrive. There are already existing policies that RAs and administration are trained for to “protect our people.” If ICE or other law enforcement agents come to campus asking questions, they will comply with the law but also make sure that the rights of the campus and our students are known and exercised. This is an incredibly sensitive topic and they want to be sure not to draw attention to our campus as “flouting the law” as that would increase attention and likely enforcement, thus they encourage students to communicate with one another (i.e. share resources, share support, inform people of their rights, etc.) and leverage our community to circulate information across campus. In regards to international students and visas, those are not expected to be challenged until visas expire and there are resources available to extend those (contact jessica.leonard@centre.edu for more information).
Jamey Leahey sent an email to the students on Friday to share guidance about how to engage with these new executive orders. This information will continue to be updated on CentreNet located on the Office of Legal Affairs page (under the Campus Resources page), please take a look at the email and look over it yourself and tell your friends and communities to look at it as well.
All this to say: student concerns are valid and shared by the administration and they are doing everything they can to keep our community safe and protected. As soon as the administration is informed of changes, they will inform us and The Cento will do all in its power to do the same. If nothing else can bring you some peace in this chaos, let that comfort you.
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Opinions expressed by writers and editors do not represent the views of The Cento. The Cento is a non-partisan, unbiased newspaper that seeks to inform students and promote open discourse from all perspectives. If you have opinions, please feel free to share them with The Cento. Email thecento.centre@gmail.com or DM @thecento.centre on Instagram.