Supporting Our International Community

To the USC Community

January 29, 2017

On behalf of President Nikias and the entire USC administration, I write to express our concern about the recent executive order (Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States) limiting immigration and entry into the United States, and how it could impact hundreds of our international students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Our foremost concern is with the members of our community from those countries who are directly affected by this order. We have reached out and are working with them to provide our support and assistance. On Friday night, our Office of International Services advised our community from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen to postpone any international travel. Departing the U.S. during this time could make it difficult, or even impossible, to return. We are also advising members of our community who may be trying to enter the U.S. to wait until visa and admission restrictions are lifted.

We have several resources on campus to advise and provide support. For specific questions about immigration, the Office of International Services and the Gould School of Law’s Immigration Clinic are excellent sources of information. The Office of Religious LifeStudent Counseling Services, and the Center for Work and Family Life are available for more general support.

We are working with our governmental relations team and with our peer universities through the Association of American Universities and other associations to monitor this fluid situation and to better understand steps we might take to best serve our international community.  The recent AAU statement on the executive order is here: http://www.aau.edu/news/article.aspx?id=18366.  We will continue to update you as we learn more.  As a creative and compassionate community, we know you will have ideas about how we can be supportive. We welcome them at uscprovost@usc.edu.

We have heard from many in our community and appreciate the outpouring of support for those who could be impacted by new immigration policies. It reflects the Trojan Family at its best. There will be upcoming events – for those directly affected through the Office of International Services, and for our entire community through the Office of Religious Life, the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, and others. You can find out more about these in the days ahead at https://studentaffairs.usc.edu/post-election-open-conversations.

We want to assure you that we are fully committed to supporting all members of our Trojan Family – regardless of their national origin or religious affiliation. We are proud to have, and we are better by having, a richly diverse community.  We will do everything we can to ensure all of our academic community can continue to study, research, and teach at USC. Our previous statement about immigration and support for our international community can be found at: https://www.provost.usc.edu/announcement/memo-to-the-usc-community-regarding-daca.

USC always has been and always will be a global university. We value our international scholars and their presence adds to our truly exceptional community.

Michael W. Quick

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs