Case Western Reserve’s Faculty Senate this week condemned President Trump’s Jan. 27 Executive Order regarding entry of refugees and individuals from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
By a vote of 30-2, the university’s representative body for faculty Tuesday passed a resolution that called the order “contrary to morality, arguably to law, and to the finest traditions of generosity of the United States.”
The resolution was sponsored by the 13 Faculty Senators from the College of Arts and Sciences, one of eight schools within the university. Ken Ledford, an associate professor of history and chair of its department, initiated the resolution.
“It is vital that the representative body of the [Case Western Reserve] University Faculty has taken this clear stand on one of the important moral issues of our day,” Ledford said, “in order to signal to our fellow faculty, our research collaborators worldwide, and to our current and prospective students that we will work to reverse this error.”
The resolution also asked that members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation “act swiftly to reverse this Executive Order through legislative action.”
Added Ledford, “We are confident that the senators and representatives from Ohio will agree with us.”
The resolution itself also described the order as “discriminatory, in that it unfairly targets a large group of immigrants and non-immigrants on the basis of their countries of origin and religion.” It went on to note that the order “significantly damages United States leadership in higher education and research” and “imposes undue burden on members of the United States academic community, our colleagues, students, and friends.”
Case Western Reserve’s Faculty Senate represents the more than 3,000 individuals with faculty appointments at the university, including those employed at its affiliated hospitals.