By Tim Shively, President of the Foothill-De Anza Faculty Association

“First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”– Martin Niemoller, “First They Came”

Martin Niemoller’s words are perhaps more germane today than at any time since he wrote them in 1947 post-war Germany.  In today’s America we are at an inflection point as a society where our bedrock principles of morality, ethics and law are being fractured, and this is particularly evident in the field of higher education, which has been under assault by the Trump administration.  Recently, this has manifested in the termination of international student visa status, wherein some 1500+ students (that we know of) around the nation who had been granted entry to study here in the US primarily on F-1 status last month had their status unceremoniously revoked with little explanation from the Department of Homeland Security which monitors this status.  In fact, neither the nine students at Foothill-De Anza and one in the San Mateo Community College District nor their institutions were initially alerted to this development.  While this “termination” stopped short of initiating their removal from the country, and the status of most of these students was ultimately restored, that is small comfort to those students who have already left the country, probably fearful of the headline grabbing stories of students being pulled off the street by masked agents, shipped to deportation centers in far flung states and held for weeks without due process.  

This led to the San Mateo Federation of Teachers [our union, AFT 1493] reaching out to the Foothill-De Anza Faculty Association and asking for our participation in launching a petition they had drafted in support of these students.  The City College of San Francisco Faculty Union also got on board, and collectively we were able to gather over 300 signatures from faculty, students, staff and community members.  

While this show of support was greatly appreciated, and the signatures were ultimately submitted to our Districts along with requests for further discussion about the petition’s demands and how our Districts could better support these students, I have also found myself wondering what could have made it a more robust show of support.  As I shopped the petition idea around my campus, other Community College districts in the Bay Area and  around the state, there seemed to be a general lack of urgency among much of the populace.  Not that individuals wouldn’t sign a petition if was put right in front of them, but that they and their constituencies don’t seem to feel really…driven to do so.  

To some degree, this inertia seems duplicated at the District level.  My Chancellor has been very active lately encouraging other CEO’s to join together to defend themselves against the punitive and vindictive actions of the Trump administration.  There is in motion an emerging “pact” among CCC’s approximating that which has evolved between the “Big Ten” Universities nationally.  And in our conversations, my Chancellor and I have shared the difficulties (as well as the successes) in organizing disparate institutions into alliances that both have teeth (e.g. the sharing of information and resources) and can be replicated as more institutions recognize the crisis we are in and that “sheltering in place” as well as outright capitulation are not viable strategies moving forward (witness Columbia University).  At some point, we also need to develop not just horizontal solidarity within the groups that we operate, but vertical connections between the Executive level, the faculty, staff and students of our institutions and the surrounding communities.  That is when we will really have developed a strong presence that will allow us to push back and not be dismissed.  

For me, I can really only speak about CCC faculty unions.  While perhaps there is a certain insularity in the fact that we each represent only our own bargaining unit, and that each local has encoded in its individual contract with its District the rules and regulations they work by, I’d like to think we can operate and engage in collective good beyond those boundaries.  That we can use our power and privilege to empathize with and support more at risk peoples and groups even if we are not directly affiliated with them.  I think the fact that the San Mateo Federation of Teachers stepped up on behalf of the one student whose visa status was threatened is testimony to that.  So let’s reach out, beyond our comfort zones, and get everyone involved, before it happens again, and likely worse. 

President Shively speaking to SMCCCD Board of Trustees, April 30, 2025

Our response to such attacks needs to be much more public, so that the entire citizenry, not just community college students and employees, are reminded on a daily basis of how this imminent threat to international students could be easily expanded towards domestic “undesirables,” such as unions, our LGBTQ+ communities, and those of non-Christian faiths, to name a few potential targets. And the California Community Colleges’ Chancellor’s Office needs to step up its game.  To date, it has offered very little commentary–at least publicly (nothing on their website, for example)–and there does not seem to have been much if any collaboration with our state’s other higher ed systems. It may be something of a cliché, but it is truly only together that we stand a chance of making it through this storm.