Corey Farris Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

WVU Voices Support for International Community at Forum and Vigil

Laila Sakkal, a senior pre-med student at West Virginia University who was born in Charleston, held back tears as she talked about her Syrian grandmother, who can no longer join Sakkal’s family in the United States as planned. On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that temporarily barred non-U.S. citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. – though the details of the order are still unclear.

The order barred Syrian refugees indefinitely.

“We’ve been working for a visa for her for to come here and stay with us for over two years. It just got approved last month. We were going to go get her in March because she’s too sick to travel alone,” Sakkal said.

West Virginia University community members gather Monday, Jan. 30, 2017, at Woodburn Circle for a vigil to support those affected by a recent U.S. executive order.

On a cold and snowy Monday night, Sakkal and others voiced opposition to the executive order at a vigil at WVU’s Woodburn Circle in Morgantown. Students and community members who who weren’t affected showed their support for those who were through signs and speeches. At one point, a group of men drove by chanting Trump’s name.

The presidents of at least three academic organizations – WVU, West Virginia State University and Marshall University – have pledged their support for international students and faculty affected by the ban. WVU estimates that the order affects about 140 of their students and faculty.

Before the vigil, WVU held an open forum for concerned community members to ask questions about the executive order to a panel that comprised of WVU Provost Joyce McConnell, immigration attorney Barbara Bower, Vice President for Global Strategy and International Affairs William Brustein, Dean of Students Corey Farris and Muslim Student Association President Sara Berzingi.

Many who attended the vigil held signs to support those affected by the executive order.

“You may not know how quickly words spread in an administrative structure. But as soon as the executive order was issued, we were on it,” McConnell said.

Questions ranged from, “Will WVU provide housing to international students who can no longer return home during breaks” (yes, though pricing was unknown at the time) to “Will WVU become a sanctuary campus” (the university will wait and see how events unfold before making that decision).

A community member asks a question of the panelists at an open forum at prior to the vigil.

Several students and faculty asked Bower questions about the order’s effect on international travel and employment and education opportunities for international students. She emphasized that the executive order was written so broadly that not even immigration lawyers can say for certain how it will be enforced or which demographics will be affected.

“If you are from any of those seven countries, and you don’t have to travel abroad, I would encourage you to stay here,” she said.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., released a statement Monday evening opposing the executive order. He wrote that he supports the extreme vetting of immigrants, but that he’s concerned that the executive order was not “properly vetted by senior security advisors and members in the Administration.” West Virginia’s Republican senator, Shelley Moore Capito, had not released a statement regarding the executive order as of Monday night.

In a statement to The Charleston Gazette, Representative Evan Jenkins said that vetting immigrants keeps the country safe, but asked the Trump administration to clarify the parameters of this specific executive order.

WVU Announces Closure of Residential Complex Arnold Hall

The West Virginia University Board of Governors voted Friday afternoon to shut down Arnold Hall and Apartments, one of its older residence halls, and to add beds to University Place, a public-private apartment that the university has been struggling to fill.

No employees will be fired and no students will be displaced as a result of the Arnold Hall closure.

During the meeting on Friday, Rob Alsop, WVU vice president for legal, government and entrepreneurial engagement, acknowledged that the the cost of construction for University Place exceeded expectations, and that the building is only 46 percent filled to capacity for the current academic year.

The repurposed space in University Place will be called Seneca Hall. It would be the most expensive residence offered by WVU, with prices starting at $4,100 per bed per semester.

Alsop said that low-cost residential options would continue to be available to students who need them.

“Those students who were looking for low cost options and were thinking about Arnold will have options on the Evansdale or Downtown campus to do that,” he said. “And those who want more amenities and can pay for that will have Seneca Hall. We’re not forcing anyone to move. There will be plenty of low cost options, we think, for those students.”

He added that private-public partnerships help stimulate the local economy and reduce the debt on the university’s side.

“For public and private partnerships, what we do is, the private sector either takes on that debt or equity to put money into a project, so they bring that benefit to the table, and then we bring the ability for student housing,” he said. “Another thing is, in the area of Sunnyside where this was located, there was some more rundown housing, and we think we stimulated a number of activities to reinvigorate that part of Sunnyside.”

Dean of Students Corey Farris said he did not foresee any trouble filling Seneca Hall to capacity.

“The types of beds that we’re putting online in Seneca Hall are filling first. Those are private bedrooms and private bathrooms, where they’re not sharing them with 20 other people on the floor,” he said.

Before the vote, WVU President E. Gordon Gee stressed that student housing should be seen as an experience that would help the university recruit and retain students.

One board member, Taunja Willis Miller, abstained from voting.

10:28 p.m. Jan. 27, 2015. A line was added to clarify that space in University Place would be repurposed to become Seneca Hall.

WVU Students Talk Post-Elections Fears and Hopes at Unity Circle

Monday night, hundreds of individuals joined hands on West Virginia University’s campus to show support for each other after last week’s presidential elections.

“People are fearful. People are afraid for themselves, their families, their lives. Had Mitt Romney gotten elected in the last election cycle, I don’t think my mother would’ve had to tell me to stay safe, keep a low profile, not go out at night,” said Shani Waris, one of the students who organized the Unity Circle. “It’s because the rhetoric has been blatantly racist and it’s almost encouraged.”

The event was announced in a campus-wide email last week from WVU President E. Gordon Gee. He called for open and respectful discourse, and said the WVU community must remain a safe home for all Mountaineers.

“The only thing we will not tolerate is intolerance,” Gee wrote in his email.

Organizers say the unity circle was a reaction to Donald Trump’s election last week.

One by one, members of the public went up to the lectern and spoke voluntarily about a variety of subjects, including sexual assault, sexual orientation and mental health. Some talked about their fears of living in West Virginia as individuals of color.

“I walk in terror. I’m a girl from Atlanta. I’m a southern girl and I’m proud. And never have I been so afraid to to walk out my door, hearing that minorities and women are being treated – on a college campus, a place where people come for higher learning – so I’m afraid,” one student said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks hate crimes, says more than 200 incidents of election-related intimidation have occurred nationwide as of last Friday. Several talked about comforting their parents and family, some of whom felt that life in the United States was no longer safe.

“I had to force myself to tell her, we’re not going anywhere. Not only us, but my family as a people, we worked too damn long and too damn hard to be pushed out by one man,” a student recounted of a conversation with his mother following the election. “The sad thing about it is, even though I was telling her that, I really had to think to myself, ‘Do I believe what I am saying?’”

As people made their way home after the event Dean of Students Corey Farris said he was proud of the students for standing up for unity.

“I don’t think unity is a partisan thing. It seems like it was a divisive election,” he said. “Our students are saying, but still we’re the United States of America, and it’s still a beautiful country, where individualism can be celebrated and all people are welcome and should be included in the conversation.”

But not everyone is on board. At least one man passing by shouted, “Build the wall!” at the crowd, referencing Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall to prevent undocumented Mexican immigrants from entering the United States. An attendee at the Unity Circle chased him away.

The night ended with an interfaith prayer for community, safety, patriotism and for a West Virginia University football win against the University of Oklahoma this weekend.

Universities Report No Problems With W.Va. SAE Fraternity Chapters

Since news broke about fraternity members using a racist chant in Oklahoma, Sigma Alpha Epsilon has come under fire nationwide. University officials say they haven’t had any trouble with the fraternity’s chapters in West Virginia.

A video showing Oklahoma University’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members engaging a racist chant went viral last week. The chant includes references to lynching and says African-Americans will never be members of SAE. Oklahoma University severed ties with the local chapter of the fraternity and expelled two students shortly thereafter.

Following the incident, the national chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon began investigating reports that chapters in Louisiana and Texas used the same racist chant.

“There are no allegations that have been brought to our attention about this type of racist chant or any other sort of racial intolerance with the chapters in West Virginia, “ said SAE’s National Associate Executive Director of Communications Brandon Weghorst. Weghorst says the fraternity’s leadership is committed to making sure any new allegations are investigated.

W.Va. SAE Chapters

Ed Cole is a former brother and current adviser to West Virginia University’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter. He said that since 2007 when he was initiated, he has never seen or heard of discriminatory behavior at the fraternity’s WVU chapter.

“For me, since that time period, I mean, we have never discriminated against anybody racially or for their gender or sexuality by any means,” Cole said.

Officials at West Virginia University and Marshall say they have not heard about the chant being used or taught at their universities.

WVU’s Dean of Students Corey Farris said when news of the video broke, he spoke with SAE’s leadership in Morgantown about the racist chant possibly being taught at chapters around the country.

“To my knowledge and my conversations and certainly with advisers of the local SAE chapter, it’s not national if they’re including WVU in the United States and I certainly consider them part of the United States. And so they were unaware of it if it’s a national thing,” Farris said.

Marshall University Dean of Students Steve Hensley said he’s aware of the issues SAE has had at campuses outside the state, but he had good things to say about the fraternity’s members at Marshall.

“Good guys, good students, never have a problem with them and I just can’t imagine that they would be involved in activities like that,” he said.

SAE Targeted

Farris said members of the WVU SAE chapter perform regular community service and are very involved in student government, but the chapter’s advisor Ed Cole says members of other fraternities at the university have targeted SAE on social media because of the Oklahoma video. Cole said he’s spoken with his members about not reacting negatively to the comments.

“So, we know who we are. We know that’s not us. We know we don’t do that chant, so don’t acknowledge it or don’t try to strike out at anybody by any means,” he said.

WVU Fraternity Incidents

WVU put a moratorium on all fraternity and sorority activities following several incidents at the university in November last year. Eighteen-year-old Kappa Sigma pledge Nolan Burch died after he was found unresponsive at the fraternity’s off-campus house. Later in November, 19 members of the Sigma Chi fraternity were cited by police for unruly behavior in Morgantown’s South Park neighborhood.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon wasn’t involved in either of the incidents. and Cole says SAE was one of the first Greek organizations to have its moratorium lifted. Cole said that’s because SAE followed the procedures WVU put in place following the incidents when some other fraternities didn’t.