Women and Gender Studies professor Ariana Vigil wrote a letter to Chancellor Carol Folt that said UNC should not release private student information, like immigration status, to authorities. The letter was signed by dozens of professors.
“I consider myself part of this University community and for me that brings with it a responsibility to speak up when vulnerable members of our community are targeted,” she said. “Moreover, the proposed legislation clearly hinders the ability of students and others to complete their studies so this is an issue that impacts academics and that we have a stake in.”
She said she speaks out about politics frequently.
“If I can offer historical and political context and a nuanced perspective, based on my areas of expertise, I think that is part of me fulfilling my job as a scholar and teacher,” she said. “Moreover, I personally have an ethical and political commitment to the issues I study and to social justice and combating discrimination.”
UNC English professor Jennifer Ho expressed her beliefs on President Trump’s Immigration Ban in an opinion editorial in the News and Observer. She compared the ban to previous exclusionary and xenophobic legislation that had been passed by the federal government, saying that as a child of immigrants, she was tired of seeing the same mistakes being made.
“I don’t believe that the decisions that Trump has made or the declarations he has made since taking office are in the spirit of what the United States is supposed to be about,” Ho said. “It may be commensurate with the kinds of systemic inequality that has underpinned US legislation from the time of its founding to our current moment, but it certainly does not represent the best of what the US could be and should be.”
Ho has also been vocal about HB 2 within her department. She said it is an exclusionary bill that was meant to vilify and oppress certain groups of people.
“The bathroom portion of it created a false narrative of bathroom predators and used a rationale and language of protecting women and children that was used to promote segregated spaces/bathrooms during the civil rights era,” she said. “This is legislation meant to oppress and marginalize transgender people and the other portions of HB2 were meant to control local municipalities — to prevent them from increasing the minimum wage for employees. So it was punitive based on gender/sexuality/class.”
