For more than a decade, Metropolitan State University of Denver ’s Immigrant Services Program has provided faculty and staff members with the tools to help immigrant students succeed.
This year will be no exception.
On April 4, MSU Denver, Community College of Denver and the University of Colorado Denver will jointly present UndocuPeers training. The interactive event is designed to create a welcoming environment for immigrant students across the Auraria Campus.
Ultimately, the goal is to increase access, retention and graduation rates among those students. But along the way, it’s important to make those students feel welcome and secure, said Gregor Mieder, MSU Denver’s Immigrant Services Program director.
Undertaking the six-hour training is a significant investment of time, Mieder acknowledged. But providing faculty and staff with the opportunity to attend reflects the University’s mission and its commitment to serving immigrant students, he said. “MSU Denver, thankfully, is very thoughtful when it comes to immigrant students and has been for many decades.”
Mieder said the training has been adapted and adjusted over the years to reflect the changes in immigration law and to incorporate the implications of various court decisions affecting immigrant students.
The situation for undocumented and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students has become more tenuous and, to many of them, more frightening. Yet “the lack of stability, the lack of resources and the uncertainty surrounding their futures is the same for some of our students as it was years ago,” Mieder said.
Giving faculty and staff members a greater understanding of the challenges those students face – challenges that exist on top of their studies – is vital to helping them succeed, he said.
UndocuPeers, a nationwide project of the nonprofit organization United We Dream, cultivates that understanding through interactive lessons, small-group interactions and activities and by hearing from the students themselves, Mieder said.
Participants leave knowing how to talk to and support undocumented students about financial aid options if they aren’t authorized to work in the United States, and how to help them apply for financial aid. Undocumented and DACA students are not eligible for federal financial aid but may have other options, which are reviewed during UndocuPeers training.
The training also addresses how to recognize signs of trauma, Mieder said. “What that looks like and where it comes from — it’s not just the threat of deportation, “but the stressors of not knowing what employment or their future might look like.”
UndocuPeers also tries to dispel the myth that all immigrants enter the U.S. from the southern border, when in reality, they come from across the world, not just Mexico, Central America or South America, and under a wide range of circumstances.
Though immigration and customs enforcement has never taken place on campus and remains highly unlikely, the course will include guidance on how to respond should the need ever arise.
Mieder said Immigrant Services understands that not every department can spare a staff or faculty member for six hours. So, the office can provide shorter versions of the training for a group or department. “We want to make sure that whatever they can do, we can help them, and talk through options.”
UndocuPeers training
Date: April 4, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Location: CU Denver Business School
1475 Lawrence St.
To schedule a shorter training specifically for your area, department, or program, visit https://www.msudenver.edu/immigrant-services/.
