Letter to the Editor: An open letter to President Lahey

An open letter to President Lahey:

As you are aware, this past year Pomona College issued a statement in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA). This statement was described by its authors as a “moral imperative” and “national necessity.” As of today, 646 different university presidents have signed on in support. These presidents represent every single one of our 20 peer-institutes, every Ivy League, and 23 different Connecticut schools. This past spring, both a faculty petition and a Student Government declaration called for you to sign onto the Pomona statement. For understandable reasons, you decided not to; you wanted to keep Quinnipiac from appearing to take sides. I am writing this letter asking you to reconsider. I believe that now more than ever we have a moral obligation as a university to inform our representatives in government that we support the intentions and outcomes of the DACA program.

Publicly supporting DACA does not require any condemnation of President Trump. It does not require you to take a side on the left or the right. We simply ask that Quinnipiac reaffirms the fact that DACA recipients have been, and continue to be, exemplary members of our community who deserve the right to continue their education. Now more than ever, as Congress begins work on a replacement for DACA, the country needs to hear this message.

Under your leadership, this school has become the great institution that it is today. For this, I cannot thank you enough. However, I feel that by remaining silent, Quinnipiac is committing itself to the wrong side of history. Edmund Burke once said “the only thing necessary for evil to exist is for good people to remain silent.” You are a good man, President Lahey. I implore you not to remain silent. I once heard you say that you would take any Quinnipiac student as your son or daughter. I ask you now, if your child were facing deportation because of circumstances entirely outside of their control, what would you do?

— Jack Onofrio Hamden Quinnipiac University, class of 2019