Housing & Residence Life (HRL) has directed resident heads (RHs), resident assistants (RAs), and desk clerks to immediately call the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) if federal immigration enforcement enters a UChicago dorm, according to an email reviewed by the Maroon.
The email instructed residential staff to contact UCPD and notify their supervisors so that “trained personnel and institutional resources can take the lead.” It also advised staff to remain “calm and courteous,” ask for the agent’s name and agency affiliation, and “state… willingness to cooperate,” matching the University’s standing guidance to the community for contact with non–UCPD law enforcement personnel.
“Decisions about cooperation with federal agencies, including access to University buildings, are made solely by University leadership and legal counsel,” the email reads. “These decisions are not made at the staff or departmental level.”
The email did not specify how UCPD would respond but stated that “UCPD is the trained and authorized point of contact and will respond in accordance with University protocol and applicable law.”
“No Housing & Residence Life staff member, including student staff, will be asked or expected to escort, guide, or accompany federal agents,” the email continues. “Housing & Residence Life staff are not expected, and should not attempt, to intervene, block, or otherwise engage directly with federal agents.”
The guidance also notes that external law enforcement agencies will not be permitted access to dorm buildings without valid search warrants.
Two RHs, who spoke to the Maroon on the condition of anonymity, said the University’s guidelines did not properly outline how HRL staff should respond in the event that ICE enters the dorms. “Simply saying the standard line, ‘Call UCPD,’ is not a real plan,” one of the RHs said.
“One of the last lines [of the University’s email notifying students of an international student’s detainment] is about how it’s important to have a plan in place. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.… You need to have a plan. Why are you putting it on our students to figure it out themselves? This is your job.’”
Last Thursday, an international student was briefly detained by ICE before presenting documentation and being quickly released. ICE personnel have also been reported around Hyde Park as part of a broader operation in the Chicago area.
The RH also said staff found out about the detainment from students—who had received an email from the University about the incident—and not directly from administrators. “I would say the main initial takeaway is just being dumbfounded that we found out through the grapevine, rather than any communication from the actual institution,” they said. “We, who are supposed to be the leaders in our houses, who are supposed to be the ones that are informed and able to point them towards resources, [were] caught completely uninformed.”
They added that their race made them concerned over ICE identifying them personally. “I, as a brown, very Mexican person, would appreciate… know[ing] that ICE has been sighted on the Midway, that they’ve been sighted at 55th and University. I went to that corner to pick up a package that day,” they said. “I really would have appreciated to know where we’ve been seeing ICE because that’s my… safety [directly at stake].”
The RH suggested that UIC and Northwestern, among other schools, had better communicated similar protocols to students. “I’m not saying [other institutions are] perfect,” they said. “I’m just saying that the University has not communicated any of that, and I am in a position where the University should absolutely be communicating with me as a resident head [so I know] how I can enact those policies [and] what we can do.”
The second RH specifically criticized the lack of student presence when they met with Associate Vice President for Safety & Security Eric Heath last week and how students have been absent from relevant discussions. “Even though there have been calls [by RHs] for students to be brought into these conversations, no students were invited to this meeting,” the RH said. “I know it’s intentional because we had discussions about why students should be involved [and] how to involve students.”
At a meeting between HRL staff and Dean of the College Melina Hale, a resident dean (RD) asked Hale what to do if ICE entered a dorm lobby and whether there was a specific protocol, according to the first RH. The RD received no response. “When we ask, it’s always a punt,” they said.
“The message that I receive through all the non-messaging… is that University leadership actively does not care,” the second RH said. “They care more about their liability and their profits than their people… and how this type of negative press might affect their brand. They don’t want to call attention to [concerns about immigration enforcement] because that might draw the ire of Trump, or it might draw the ire of a donor.”
