The San Mateo County Community College District’s (SMCCCD) response to the recent actions of the Trump Administration have so far been adequate in addressing the needs of students and staff. 

When news that U.S. Customs and Border Protection was to be deployed to San Francisco on October 23, district leaders responded with emails addressing the concerns and fears of students and other members of the community on all three campuses. 

Chancellor Melissa Moreno and Skyline College President Nathan Carter sent out district-wide emails expressing the district’s unwavering commitment to its students, promising that the district would send out alerts if Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were to be on campus. In addition, their emails also reaffirmed that the district would not share any information with federal authorities and reaffirmed the resources available on campus to support students in fear of being deported or harassed by ICE.

Along with district leaders, some faculty and professors sent out emails and messages of support to their students. 

Tadashi Tsuchida, a Skyline math professor, sent out an email to his students postponing a test that was supposed to happen on the day of the ICE surge. 

“I didn’t feel it was fair to put [students] in a position of either ‘I’m going to miss my test and stay safe,’ or ‘I’m going to come in and take my test and know that I’m in danger,’ potentially really bad consequences,” Tsuchida said. 

Supportive responses like these are important and vital for the health of our campuses. It’s impossible to expect students to be able to come to class like everything is normal when it could be a life or death situation for them to even attend class. 

However, talk is not merely enough. A student at Skyline’s Undocumented Community Center (UCC), who wished to remain anonymous, spoke about how they felt the district should be doing more than just sending out emails in the face of a crisis.

“I think that it would be nice to see more actions from the district rather than just emails,” the anonymous student said. “I know resources are really full, but I think it would be cool to see the district take more initiative in getting more involved with its community on campuses. Specifically here.”

If push comes to shove and ICE is present on campus, the district must do everything in its power to prevent them from entering or forcefully abducting students. While the district has done a good job reaffirming their support for students in light of the ICE surge, it should also acknowledge student voices and concerns directly through giving them space to speak about their needs. 

The Skyline View editorial has no byline because it is the voice of TSV’s Editorial Satff.