Announcement from NADOHE President Archie Ervin

Dear Colleagues: 

 
NADOHE was asked by ACE to join 32 higher education associations, including ACE, in the filing of an amicus brief on the administration's "travel ban."  The brief, drafted by outside counsel, was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court this week.  It can be found here:  http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/Amicus-Brief-to-the-Supreme-Court-Trump-v-Hawaii.aspx
 
The Supreme Court will hear the case, Trump v. Hawaii, on April 25, which ACE advises is the last oral argument day of the term.  ACE has provided representative samplings of the brief's message to the Court that include:

• "Foreign students, faculty and researchers come to this country because our institutions are rightly perceived as the destinations of choice compared to all others around the globe." The Proclamation, together with the first two travel ban executive orders, "altered those positive perceptions with the stroke of a pen." Its "clarion message of exclusion" says that "America's doors are no longer open to foreign students, scholars, lecturers, and researchers."  

• Global diversity is critical to the success of Americans entering the modern borderless marketplace.  Fifteen years ago, the Supreme Court recognized in Grutter v. Bollinger that "American businesses have made clear that the skills needed in today's increasingly global marketplace can only be developed through exposure to widely diverse people, cultures, ideas, and viewpoints."  

• Six years ago, the Supreme Court noted in Arizona v. United States that "[i]mmigration policy shapes the destiny of the Nation. . . . The history of the United States is in part made of the stories, talents, and lasting contributions of those who crossed oceans and deserts to come here." 

• "[T]he free flow of ideas and people" are critical to progress in a democratic society.  The inquiry, innovation, and invention that take place every day within amici's classrooms, libraries, and laboratories depend on the ability of scholars and students to travel to and from the United States." 

•  "More than 43,000 American scholars-including 62 Nobel Laureates; 146 recipients of prestigious awards like the Fields Medal, Pulitzer Prize, and MacArthur Fellowship; and 521 Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Arts-explained in an online petition that the travel ban 'limits collaborations with researchers from these nations by restricting entry of these researchers to the US and can potentially lead to departure of many talented individuals who are current and future researchers and entrepreneurs in the US.'" 

 
NADOHE joins ACE and 32 other education associations in our continuing goal to advance diversity within our member colleges and universities and support our mutual goals of welcoming members of the international community to our institutions. 

Sincerely,

Archie W. Ervin, President
NADOHE