The Student Government Association and the Hispanic/Latin@ Faculty and Staff Association also released statements. The SGA statement is .

The H/LFSA statement is below:

Dear University of Louisville Community,

The recent decision by the White House to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has placed several members of our Cardinal community at risk. The Trump administration indicated DACA will end this coming March if Congress does not act. This change in policy leaves nearly 800,000 undocumented residents with an uncertain future, including some of our own University of Louisville students. These students immigrated to the United States from many countries across the globe, not just Latin America.  

Potentially, these students would have to return to a country that has not been their home. In many cases, these are places where violence and starvation forced their parents to move to the uncertain with a dream of a better life for their kids. Those kids have grown now and are hardworking, productive individuals who tried to do the “right thing” by declaring their status when they registered under the DACA program. In short, they are the very type of people our society wants and needs. These individuals have enrolled in universities across the nation, have entered the traditional labor force, and have even joined the armed forces. 

In addition to the great humanitarian cost associated with such a change in policy, there are large fiscal costs as well. The Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that $1.2 billion of tax revenue will be lost with the end of the program. A study from the CATO institute finds that immediate deportation of these individuals will cost the federal government $60 billion. An additional $280 billion in economic growth will be lost over the following decade. 

The University of Louisville has been receptive to undocumented students in the past, and we hope it will continue to be. These students cannot apply for financial aid like most students. However, the Kentucky Council of Postsecondary ����ֱ�� does allow for selected colleges and universities to extend in-state tuition to these students. A University of Louisville alumnus has set up the The Sagar Patagundi Alumni Scholarship to subsidize tuition for high-achieving undocumented students. One way to show your support is to donate to this scholarship.

Several informational sessions will take place on campus and throughout the greater Louisville area over the next few days. In the meantime, the University of Louisville Counseling Center (http://louisville.edu/counseling/) is available to students in crisis. The Cultural Center is making itself available to students who need to “drop in” for more information about how to proceed, members of the Hispanic/Latin@ Faculty and Staff Association of the University of Louisville are also available to support

We request that the university community help support these fellow Cardinals in their time of need and that university officials monitor the situation as well as provide timely support and protection to these members of our community.

Sincerely,

Hispanic/Latin@ Faculty and Staff Association of the University of Louisville

The University of Louisville is deeply concerned about the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Absent Congressional action during the next six months, this decision could harm many members of our university community, their families and their loved ones.

We want you to know that we cherish every member of our campus community, and we will explore ways to ensure that a UofL education is accessible to all.

As our diversity slogan clearly states, “You Belong.”

For students, faculty and staff who are anxious or concerned about how DACA will affect them, the university is offering resources to help you cope:

• The UofL Counseling Center will be accepting drop-in appointments Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can find more information at 852-6585.
• The Cultural Center and its Hispanic/Latino Initiatives office are available to offer student support and resources. Call 852-6656 for more information.
• Our campus Undocumented Student Resource Council is a group of students, faculty, staff and friends who work on improving the experience of undocumented students. The next meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 2 p.m. in the Cultural Center. For more information or to get involved, send an email.

Again, we want to stress that we value and will continue to support all members of our university family.

Sincerely,

Gregory Postel, MD, Interim President

Dale Billingsley, PhD, Interim Executive Vice President and University Provost

The event, the second in the center’s “Promises and Perils of the American Presidency” public lecture series, featured UofL alumna and University of Virginia government professor Barbara Perry, who said that the first month of a Trump presidency has clearly shown that not all presidents are alike.

“In 2008 I was asked to examine whether or not it mattered who was in the White House because maybe it was thought that it didn’t matter because all politicians are alike,” Perry said. “I find it fascinating because, in part, Trump won the election because he played off of that, saying that all politicians are bad or crooked and that he wasn’t one of those. But it does matter who’s in the office. That’s been made clear through the first few weeks of that presidency and it has mattered throughout our history.”

Perry, the director of Presidential Studies and co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at UV, says a president’s success depends on a combination of factors.

“You also have to surround yourself with good people. George Washington had Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton as the Secretary of the Treasury,” Perry said. “It’s helpful to note that many presidents who were strong leaders were not afraid to surround themselves with the best and the brightest.”

And for good reason: He was a student at Harvard Law School when now-Justice Elena Kagan was dean. Indeed, she recommended him for the two clerkships he received, the first for Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (2010-11), and the second for her colleague, Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court (2011-12).

In addition to his clerkships, Walker was a Pentagon speechwriter for former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He now teaches legal writing at Brandeis Law. 

He shared his insights with UofL News on President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch.

UofL News: Who is Judge Neil Gorsuch?

Walker: Judge Gorsuch is a federal appellate judge in Colorado who graduated from Columbia, Harvard and Oxford. He is married with two kids, loves the outdoors and is the son of the first female administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Among the judges who Gorsuch clerked for after law school was Justice Anthony Kennedy, which means Justice Kennedy will be the first justice ever to serve on the Supreme Court at the same time as a former clerk, if Gorsuch is confirmed.

UofL News: If confirmed, how would Gorsuch change the makeup of the court?

�²�������:��President Trump said he would replace Justice Scalia with someone who will vote like Justice Scalia. If that’s what he’s done, then the ideological balance of the court will not change. But it’s not the difference between Gorsuch and Scalia that’s history-making; it’s the difference between Gorsuch and Judge Merrick Garland.

UofL News: Judge Garland was, of course, Barack Obama’s nominee to the Court last year, which Senate Republicans blocked. What do you mean about the difference between him and Gorsuch?

Walker: Although Gorsuch and Garland are alike in many ways – both elite thinkers, both very well educated, both well respected by other judges of all persuasions – there is a significant difference. Garland was not conservative. Gorsuch is. On a court as evenly divided as today’s court, Garland would have would have made the That won’t happen now.

UofL News: How does his style compare to Justice Scalia’s?

Walker: Judge Gorsuch’s respect for Justice Scalia was so great that when he heard the news of Scalia’s death while skiing in Colorado, . That doesn’t mean they are exactly the same in their style and approach to the law. But like Scalia, he considers himself a textualist, which means he says he feels bound to apply the law as it is written, not necessarily as he thinks it should be written. Of course, some textualists are accused of not always practicing what they preach. For Judge Gorsuch, time will tell. But his record suggests a fidelity to the text.

UofL News: How does he compare to the current justices?

Walker: In many ways, he’s like them. Like Gorsuch, they were all federal appellate judge before becoming Supreme Court justices. Like him, they all studied at Harvard or Yale. And like him, they all built careers that put them at the top of their field through their hard work and intellectual firepower. If Judge Gorsuch is confirmed, I think his eight colleagues will see someone who shares their high standards, their passion for the law and their respect for collegiality.

UofL News: He has been described as taking an originalist approach to the Constitution. Can you explain what this means?

Walker: Originalists care about what the text of Constitution originally meant to the people who ratified it. But like most things in law, it’s more complicated than that. Few originalists care only about original meaning; for example, even Justice Scalia sometimes deferred to precedents that were inconsistent with it. And likewise, among the many judges who don’t label themselves “originalists,” few of them care nothing about original meaning. As Justice Kagan said last year,

UofL News: When the court has all nine justices in place, what are some of the major issues you would expect it to tackle in coming years?

Walker: There are lots to choose from, but I’ll mention three that come to mind.

One is free speech. The recent court has been among the most pro-speech courts ever, especially when it comes to speech that majorities of justices have viewed as political – and that their dissenting colleagues consider either not political, or not speech. How much farther will this court go to strike down limits on what they view as political speech protected by the First Amendment?

Another area is gun control: Heller said you have the right to a handgun in your home. What about outside your home? What about other kinds of guns? Stay tuned.

A third area I’ll mention isn’t the most high profile, but it’s one that could have a big impact on who has power in Washington. When it comes to federal agencies, how much power should those agencies have? Under current precedent, they have a lot of flexibility in interpreting the statutes that empower them. And under current precedent, Congress has a lot of flexibility in granting those agencies somewhat undefined authorities. There are some signs Judge Gorsuch is skeptical of some of those precedents, and if he’s confirmed, he might have company.

UofL News: How long might Gorsuch serve?

Walker: Judge Gorsuch is 49, the youngest nominee in a quarter century. The oldest justice ever was Oliver Wendell Holmes, at 90. In other words, if Gorsuch is confirmed, I doubt he’ll tell his real estate agent he’s looking to rent.

See more of Walker’s thoughts on the changes facing the Supreme Court here: