All three University of Michigan 

students mentioned in this article 
requested anonymity due to concern 
for their own safety and the safety of 
their family. The country of origin of 
one of the students is also withheld 
out of the same concern.

All under the age of 5 when they 

left, memories of home remain 
vague for three University of 
Michigan students since arriving in 

the United States on now-expired 
visas. Though protected now under 
the Deferred Action for Childhood 
Arrivals, uncertainty for the future 
under the Trump administration 
looms.

The students went without legal 

protection until former President 
Barack Obama signed the DACA 
executive action in the summer 
of 2012. While the action does not 
grant a pathway to citizenship for 
recipients — who are often referred 
to as “Dreamers” — it provides the 
ability to work and deportation 
release.

One of the requirements to 

qualify for DACA includes arrival 
in the United States before the age 
of 16. For one female LSA junior, 
though her family avoids the 
topic of their citizenship, she still 
remembers arriving in the United 
States.

“I arrived when I was four 

and a half years old from (a South 
American country),” she said. “I 
don’t remember much other than 
saying goodbye to family members 
and … arriving in Florida. We all 
left on visas. This is what makes it 
hard because it’s something that my 

parents don’t like talking about a lot, 
and so … I never know exactly how 
things are, like really are. Like how 
did we get here, what did they do to 
get here. Then again, they didn’t tell 
me until I was in seventh grade.”

It wasn’t until fifth grade, when 

he started asking questions, that 
another LSA junior learned of about 
his immigration status. His family 
arriving to Detroit from Mexico 
on a visa when he was 4 years old, 
immigration and their status did not 
become an issue until later in his life.

“Around when I was 11 or 12, 

that’s when we started having 

more and more anti-immigrant 
sentiment,” he said. “We started 
seeing it, both in politics and in life. 
Especially around the time when 
the economy started going down.”

As these students grew older, 

enrolling 
in 
college 
became 

an issue. This was before the 
University of Michigan decided to 
allow undocumented immigrants 
to qualify for in-state tuition. For 
one Rackham student who attended 
college in Oregon before 2012, 
applying to college was a challenge 
before the state of Oregon passed a 
law in 2013 to allow undocumented 
students to receive in-state tuition 
under certain conditions.

“Back then when I was going 

to college, there was no in-state 
tuition policy, so the only schools 
that I could apply and even be 
granted in were private schools,” 
she said. “On paper, I was a really 
good student and I was a qualified 
person to go to college, but given 
my status, I applied to 15 schools 
and was rejected to 14 of them 
because they said, ‘Hey you’re a 
great student but when you can get 
this situation figured out, give us a 
call.’ ”

Despite being accepted to one 

of the schools she applied to, the 
tuition of a private school was still 
more than she could afford. As an 
undocumented student, she could 
not qualify for any loans or federal 
aid.

“Luckily 
that 
with 
private 

institutions … they can give you 
personal grants, so they are able 
to fund you (through means) not 
tied to things like FAFSA or Federal 
Financial Aid,” she said. This 
allowed her to qualify for merit-
based aid.

The male LSA junior from 

Mexico, he graduated from high 
school in 2013, the same year that 
the University of Michigan changed 
its tuition policy for undocumented 
students, so he was not yet eligible 
for in-state tuition when he needed 
to apply to the university. Due to this 
cost barrier, he spent three years at 
a community college, and still faced 
challenges qualifying for in-state 
tuition when he transferred to the 

University.

Undocumented 
students, 

including those protected by DACA, 
can only qualify for in-state tuition 
for up to 28 months after graduating 
high school, according to the 
University’s in-state tuition policy. 
Under that rule, he didn’t qualify for 
in-state tuition.

“I had to jump through a lot of 

hoops trying to get that sorted out 
because nobody on the paid staff 
knew what to do,” he said. “Not (a lot) 
of people know that that’s an issue. I 
know a lot of other undocumented 
undergraduate students who have 
gone through that, and not just 
undergraduate, graduate students 
as well.”

In-state 
tuition 
for 

undocumented immigrants varies 
from state to state; in Michian, 
the University is the only in the 
state that grants in-state tuition to 
undocumented students.

According to the Migration 

Policy Institute, 66 percent of 
approximately 1.9 million eligible 
undocumented immigrants have 
applied to and received the benefits 
DACA has to offer.

Still, despite what DACA can do 

for undocumented individuals, it 
is not a legal immigration status. 
DACA only grants temporary legal 
presence and the ability to work. 
While there is a path for some DACA 
recipients to receive a green card, 
there is not a clear pathway for many 
to achieve citizenship.

“This whole concept of ‘go 

back and do it the right way,’ don’t 
you think if that was the case we 
would’ve done it the right way the 
first time?” the undocumented 
Rackham student said.

“I can speak with confidence that 

a lot of people have been brought 
here as children and only know the 
United States as their home … they 
would love to be citizens,” the male 
LSA Junior added.

Living without citizenship stokes 

fear and uncertainty for students 
and 
mixed-status 
communities, 

or even communities where both 
documented and undocumented 
peoples live — some as nearby as 

The 
Office 
of 
Academic 

Innovation partnered with edX, 
a massive online open course 
provider, on Tuesday evening to 
hold a Design Jam for University 
of Michigan students. The event 
was held so edX could hear from 
students about its program and 
get a new perspective on the 
issues within their platform they 
want to solve.

MOOCs are online higher-

education classes available to 
learners at all levels and with all 
interests. The University partners 
with edX, as well as with other 
providers like Coursera, to create 
classes 
taught 
by 
University 

professors for the platform. 

The event aimed to facilitate 

the discussion of solutions and 
creation of prototypes to solve 
some of the challenges edX faces 
within their company. According 
to Rachel Niemer, director of the 
University’s Gameful Learning 
Lab and the organizer of the 
event, design labs are important 
because they allow students 
to enter conversations about 
innovation that are traditionally 
faculty-based.

“Our mission is to create a 

culture of innovation on campus, 
and we interact a lot with faculty 
… but we love to go directly to 
students and get their fantastic 
ideas,” Niemer said. “We find that 
the students, because they are 
immersed in the act of learning 
right now, have really unique 

insights.”

While the edX lab did not 

draw a large crowd of students, 
the handful present were able to 
interact directly with edX team 
members and faculty from the 
Office of Academic Innovation in 
a collaborative discussion.

Iain Kennedy, vice president 

of product at edX and Ross 
School of Business alum, began 
the event with an overview of 
edX’s history and mission. In 
the five and a half years since its 
creation in 2012, edX has gained 
10 million registered “learners,” 
or people who take classes on the 
site. As a nonprofit organization, 

it partners with more than 120 
academic institutions — including 
the University — to create classes 
that are generally free and open to 
the public.

“Our mission as an organization 

… is to make the best education in 
the world available to anyone in 
the world,” Kennedy said. “What 
we’re hoping to get out of today 
is some insight from folks such as 
yourselves into how we can advise 
that mission.”

After Kennedy’s statement, 

students grouped together to 
discuss the questions posed by 
edX. Some of these questions dealt 
with increasing interactivity and 

communication among learners 
and making the experience more 
reputable and meaningful.

Students 
began 
by 

brainstorming solutions to the 
questions edX asked them as they 
compared and contrasted MOOCs 
with their in-person University 
courses. LSA freshman Amar 
Srinivasan quickly turned the 
conversation to how questions 
should be asked and answered in 
the online format.

“If I was in this situation, 

what would I want?” Srinivasan 
said. “Open forum would be 
interesting, one where you can 

Effective May 1, former U.S. 

Attorney Barbara McQuade, a 
University of Michigan alum, will 
join the Law School faculty as 
a professor of national security, 
criminal 
law 
and 
criminal 

procedure.

McQuade was appointed by 

former President Barack Obama 
in 2010 as the first woman to serve 
as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern 
District 
of 
Michigan, 
which, 

according to the Detroit Free Press, 
covers 34 counties and 6 million 
residents. During her tenure, she 
oversaw over 1,000 cases and over 
100 attorneys a year.

After resigning from her post 

following 
President 
Donald 

Trump’s inauguration, McQuade 
told the Law School she is excited 
to begin teaching here, especially 
given the circumstances of the 
times.

“I am honored to return to 

Michigan Law School to teach the 
next generation of law students at 
a critical moment in our nation’s 
history,” McQuade told the Law 
School. 
“Michigan’s 
unique 

learning environment opened a 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, March 15, 2017

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 45
©2017 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

See LAW, Page 3A

Former US
Attorney to 
teach at ‘U’ 
Law in fall

GOVERNMENT

Barbara McQuade, also a 
University alum, will teach 
criminal law, procedure

KEVIN BIGLIN
Daily Staff Reporter

edX’s Design Jam work to inspire more
innovation through team building

Online open course website got feedback on program through prototypes

MAYA GOLDMAN

Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See EDX, Page 3A

This article is the second part of 

an ongoing series of articles outlining 
specific initiatives of Central Student 
Government on campus.

Providing 
financial 
support 

to more than 300 active student 
organizations on campus, the 
Student 
Organization 
Funding 

Commission is the funding body 
of Central Student Government’s 
executive commission.

Every semester, SOFC receives 

more than 400 requests from 
several 
student 
organizations 

asking to be supported by CSG. This 
semester, the body reviewed about 
50 groups each Sunday. SOFC has 
funded groups such as the Solar 
Car Team, Dance Marathon and 
TedxUofM.

SOFC Chair Kevin Yang, a 

Business junior, said though they 
have a substantial amount of 
money — about $200,000 — to 
award to student organizations, the 
process of reviewing applications 
is difficult, and requires them to 
expand and add several positions.

“We award about just shy of 

half a million dollars every single 
year to these student organizations 

See SOFC, Page 3A

SOFC aims 
to finance 
on-campus 
orgs, events

STUDENT GOVERNMENT

The Student Organization 
Funding Commission sees 
over 400 student requests 

RHEA CHEETI
Daily Staff Reporter

Students protected under DACA 
uncertain of future under Trump

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 DESIGN BY: KATIE BEUKEMA

New administration leads to fear of post-grad status and vulnerability of families 

COLIN BERESFORD

Daily Staff Reporter

See UNDOCUMENTED, Page 3A

JULIA LAWSON/Daily

LSA sophomore Felicity Harfield speaks at the speakABLE event to raise awareness for disabilities on campus in 
Hatcher Tuesday night. 

SPE AK-ABLE

