NYU faculty and students have been urging NYU President Andrew Hamilton to make our university a sanctuary campus, following in the footsteps of Columbia and 60 other universities across the country. Despite being encouraged to formally announce NYU as a sanctuary campus shortly after the election, Hamilton still has yet to do so.

Unfortunately, that policy came in the form of an unexpected executive order last month that immediately stalled all travel from seven majority-Muslim nations. The executive order immediately created issues for some international students returning from winter break.

There is currently a petition by NYU alumni demanding that NYU adopt status as a sanctuary campus, which currently has 513 signatures with a goal of 1,000. Hamilton has yet to fulfill the promise he made to adopt sanctuary campus policies in Politico New York.

Since action has yet to be taken, community members such as Faculty Fellow at the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies Begum Adalet continue to advocate for sanctuary campus status.

“We at the Kevorkian Center have signed a letter asking President Hamilton to declare NYU a sanctuary campus,” Adalet said. “We cannot emphasize enough the overall damage the ban does to our community’s connection with people in the Middle East and how it isolates all of us from the region we study.”

Students are concerned that Hamilton’s decision not to declare NYU a sanctuary campus was influenced by NYU board members who not only voted for Trump, but also donated significant funds to his campaign. The administration has not acknowledged these connections to Trump and has yet to give a definitive answer as to why NYU is reluctant to institute sanctuary status.

For CAS freshman Lily Li, an international student from China, the administration’s response has been a major point of concern, even though she is not from a country affected by the ban.

“I immediately felt a sense of insecurity when I first heard the executive order,” Li said. “Even though my country wasn’t on the list I felt it was something that could happen to me at any time. I may one day go home for a holiday and find I could never come back again.”

This article is the last in a three part series about how the NYU community has responded to the refugee crisis abroad. Check out the first and second installments in the series on nyunews.com.

Retraction: The following paragraph was removed from this article. The commentary was incorrectly attributed to Adalet, who did not speak about visas or housing.

Adalet also expressed concern for students and faculty on vulnerable visas and travel back and forth to the Middle East. According to Adalet, students on H1B visas already have difficulty finding housing at NYU because they have to stay within a specified distance from campus, further complicating the already strenuous task of finding an apartment in New York City.

Email Kate Holland at [email protected].