The Colorado Mountain College Board of Trustees voted unanimously Friday in favor of a resolution to endorse immigration reform and in support of CMC students who have benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The board stated in its resolution, “The CMC Board of Trustees stands with the nation’s leaders to express its strongest support for meaningful and permanent immigration reform, including legal status and citizenship opportunities for our Dreamer children who know no other home outside the United States of America, and authorizes college management to join in local, regional, state and national efforts urging for such a solution.”
This was the first electronic vote the trustees have held since the 2017 passage of legislation permitting electronic voting among elected boards of local district colleges. Trustees chose this method of voting for this resolution because they wanted to ensure that it could be sent to the Colorado congressional delegation and the general assembly in advance of 2018 discussions on DACA.
“This month we honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the contributions he has made to critical inquiry and access for all,” said Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, president and CEO of Colorado Mountain College. “If Dr. King were still alive today, I like to think that he would be heartened by the CMC Board of Trustees’ unanimous vote to support immigration reform and in support of CMC students who have benefitted from the DACA program.”
“Through our unanimous vote on the resolution, the CMC trustees demonstrated we stand together to express our strongest possible support for our nation’s elected leaders to implement permanent and meaningful immigration reform,” said Patty Theobald, president of the CMC Board of Trustees. “This reform should include legal status and citizenship opportunities for young people like our students who, under DACA, have found it more affordable to receive a college education and to then give back to their hometown communities here on the Western Slope.”