(This is a message sent to students, faculty, staff by SPU President Dan Martin.)
We are closely following the implementation of last week’s executive order imposing a 90-day travel ban to the United States by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. This action directly affects some of our international students, as well as many other students, faculty, and staff with family and friends overseas.
We are in the process of working with our international students and monitoring this situation with them. We are committed to standing with our students and giving them all the support we can as they continue their education at Seattle Pacific.
We are honored and indeed blessed to have an increasingly diverse student, faculty, and staff population who enrich our university. As I said in my memo immediately following this year’s election, “Each member of this community matters. We would not be the university — we would not be the community — that we are without you.” We care deeply for our international brothers and sisters, and we will do all we can to provide a safe and nurturing learning environment for them and all those on our campus, regardless of faith or nationality.
In fact, we would not be the country we are today without the millions of immigrants and refugees from every faith background who now call America home. As we and other Christian leaders monitor the other executive order temporarily banning refugees, let us continue to be a people who reach out to our neighbors and provide safe places to build community.
In the coming days we will provide further updates as we know more about the impact of the situation. I am proud that our faculty are leading a discussion this week to better understand the impact of this executive order on our students and our community.
I ask everyone to pray for wisdom and insight for our national leaders. I also ask for prayer for wisdom and insight for us here at SPU as we seek to be a place of safety and hope for our students.
Dan Martin
President
Posted: Monday, January 30, 2017