Following a recent rollback of a 2011 directive barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) from operating in “sensitive areas” including college campuses, faculty, staff and students have been left to wonder how Keene State College would respond in the event that an ICE raid took place on campus.
Recent reporting by The Equinox found that the college was awaiting a formal action plan before speculating on what a response would look like.
A recent memo from the University System of New Hampshire, the parent organization composed of Keene State College, Plymouth State University and the University of New Hampshire, has been released to faculty and staff and outlines how the colleges are expected to approach the hypothetical situation.
According to the memo, many areas of campus are open to the public. Areas that are generally open to the public are accessible and open to law enforcement.
Areas with limited public access, including USNH housing, restricted lab areas, areas that require key card access and/or have locked doors or monitored entryways would not be accessible to federal immigration officers without a warrant or consent from an employee.
The memo further states that student records protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) would not be disclosed to federal immigration officials without a subpoena.
If a valid subpoena is presented and the college is forced to give up FERPA-protected records, USNH would be required by law to notify the affected student, unless specifically forbidden by the subpoena.
While FERPA-protected data requires a subpoena, publicly available directory information, such as a name, mailing address, mailing telephone, local/campus address, local/campus telephone, KSC email address, date/place of birth, major(s), dates of attendance and degree(s) and awards received are disclosed upon request without a subpoena according to the KSC website.
According to the memo, students have the option to opt out of these disclosures, meaning that law enforcement, including federal immigration authorities, would be required to provide a subpoena when requesting the information.
Associate Provost Sue Castriotta said the opt-out process can be completed on the college’s website.
“There’s an online form, and it’s nice and easy. Because it’s tied to the institution, it can be populated quickly and taken care of,” said Castriotta.
“Things used to be paper-based, but now the forms are online and that makes the process a lot quicker,” added Castriotta.
Castriotta said opting out of certain disclosures can have unintended consequences, such as placement on the Dean’s List not being disclosable, and encouraged students who are considering opting out to review the privacy request form and college policies in order to make an informed decision.
The official Privacy Hold Request Form further encourages students to consult with the registrar’s office before selecting certain options for further counseling.
The memo specified that USNH schools are not anticipated to be targets of immigration enforcement efforts, before outlining a five-step protocol relative to the college response, should one take place.
The first step is to ask officials for government credentials, request permission to take pictures of the credentials and ask to view any warrant or subpoena they may have.
The second step involves informing the officials that the USNH legal counsel has to review the subpoenas and warrants to ensure they are properly followed. Responding parties are instructed to provide a comfortable waiting space while the college’s lawyers are being contacted.
The third step is reaching out to the USNH General Counsel’s Office (GCO). The memo further instructs responding parties to avoid accepting documents, granting consent or releasing information until the USNH GCO has been contacted.
The fourth step is providing campus safety of the presence of federal officials on campus.
Finally, the fifth step instructs responding parties to not interfere or block access in the event that federal authorities refuse to cooperate. The USNH GCO and campus safety should be notified in the event a refusal occurs.
USNH General Counsel and Secretary Chad Pimentel said the memo is designed to inform university staff and faculty.
“The specific issue of what happens if immigration enforcement comes to campus touches on a lot of different issues, and a lot of people on campus know about part of it, but not all of it. A lot of what we tried to do is put what people may have already known in some context, but not in its entirety into one place,” said Pimental.
“Broadly speaking, people on the USNH staff who handle data deal with FERPA every day. If you’re a faculty member and this happens in a classroom or an RA [Residential Assistant] and this happens in a dorm, you may not know. We wanted to make sure the things people need to know are all in one place,” added Pimental.
Pimental said he does not view the memo as being as comparatively impactful as the work of the college community in terms of maintaining a supportive environment.
“I think as a practical matter, on a day-to-day basis, a lot of the work the campuses will be doing is through community for folks that are worried and counseling and not so much to do with the law or the memo, but just people as people. When we think about what the university response looks like, I think the memo is a small part compared to the day-to-day, ongoing work of supporting students,” added Pimental.
Ryan Pacheco can be contacted at
rpacheco@kscequinox.com
