CSE students, faculty, and staff,
It was only nine days ago, that I wrote to you announcing CSE’s Inclusiveness Statement.
As you likely know, yesterday President Trump released an order suspending for 90 days issuance of new visas and re-entry privileges to nationals from 7 countries. To the extent this is a ‘political’ matter, I need to refrain from commenting, but as this directly affects some of you, indirectly affects more of you who may fear being directly affected by changes in the future, and concerns all of us for making our commitment to inclusiveness more difficult, I do think it’s important to make some non-political comments.
This change in immigration policy frightens, disturbs, and threatens many of us, particularly those directly affected. Speaking personally, it doesn’t directly affect me, but it absolutely does frighten and disturb me.
We all need to be supportive of our colleagues right now. We need to reaffirm our commitment to a collaborative community where everyone is welcome, appreciated, and treated as a first-class member — nobody in CSE is less welcome due to their religion or nationality, period. I would love to insist that “CSE hasn’t changed, and we’re the same strong community we were a week ago or a year ago,” but I also cannot pretend that changes coming from “the other Washington” can or should be ignored.
While unfortunately I don’t have much substantive information to share — I primarily read the same news articles many of you do and have not received any information from the UW administration today — I do want to encourage anyone who wants help navigating these disturbing changes logistically or emotionally to reach out to me, your undergraduate advisors, International Student Services, etc. Even in times of uncertainty, do not suffer silently.
I also want to let you know that the computing research community is not remaining silent. Yesterday, this statement was posted by the Computing Research Association, which encourages that it be shared widely. I am proud that Ed Lazowska and I happen to sit on the CRA committee that approved/edited this statement with speed and resolve — the option not to say anything was quickly dismissed as the wrong approach. Similarly, the ACM’s statement on open conferences is relevant.
Please do let me know if you have additional suggestions on what CSE and I can do.
Best,
Dan (as Acting Chair, CSE)