Two Feet In | Writing and the Institution

A version of this is published in the current issue of the LSCS  Advocate . Part 1 is here. Our Undocumented Students -- Part 2 The Threat of the State It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests. ― John Rawls, A Theory of Justice In May 2017, Texas Governor Abbott signed a bill meant to ban “sanctuary cities” in Texas by requiring that all local police — including college campus police — cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The bill makes it illegal for a local authority to have any policy that stops an officer from requesting information about immigration status, and it threatens jail time for any leaders who don’t honor requests to hold inmates who may be subject to deportation. Oppo...

A version of this is published in the current issue of the LSCS Advocate . Part 2 is here. Our Undocumented Students and the Union’s Responsibilities Politics exists because those who have no right to be counted as speaking beings make themselves of some account. (Jacques Rancière) On 5 September 2017, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III announced that DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) will be rescinded in six months. We’re going to address this issue to clarify what DACA is (and what it isn’t), why this should matter to us as members of a labor union, and what we can do. In his announcement , Sessions repeated multiple specious claims and “alternative facts” about DACA, migrants, jobs, and public safety: Sessions repeatedly uses the terminology “illegal aliens,” which, although we may hear it frequently, is not a legal term in the Immigration and Nationality Act, and it conflates the act of crossing the border illegally with an ongoing le...

Thursday, 31 August, Starbucks. Home power is off and I needed to get out of the house and hear peoples’ voices and the sounds of the store machines, the aroma of hot coffee. The store wifi is off right now and that’s fine. I don’t need to be connected all the time. Multiple emails from the LSCS chancellor and NH president. They’re very assertive and reserved at the same time. Kingwood is a mess and I have to be grateful that, this time, NH has been a source of strength, providing shelters for nearly 200 residents. (c) Houston Chronicle, 2017 Of course, I’m concerned with the students. I know some live in Greenspoint with its regular flooding events. I’m hearing from former students that some of East Aldine has avoided massive flooding, while West Aldine has its regular high water. Much of Spring has avoided flooding. But I expect about half of my students to miss first week because of multiple disruptions, including transportation loss, displacement, other family priori...

Responding to a late 20th century ideal of universal access to higher education for all Americans, especially those without the financial means or academic credentials to compete for established four-year universities, the vision of community colleges in the United States promised open access for all community residents to accredited low-costs colleges with close ties to both business and secondary education. After World War II, the Truman Commission in 1947 argued for principles of democracy and expansion of universal higher education, positioned these institutions not only opportunity to higher education merely to economic improvement, but even a fundamental call for a liberalized citizenry: American colleges and universities must envision a much larger role for higher education in the national life. They can no longer consider themselves merely the institute for producing an intellectual elite; they must become the means by which every citizen, youth, and adult is enabled to encou...